Naruto's life
by nekoftal
Summary: Naruto's life, if things had changed.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fan fiction, so please don't kill me if you don't like the story. Please review, I really need someone to point out errors in my writing, English is technically my second language. I really hate the twelve hours rule. Technically. DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden. But I can always wish. **

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**Day after the Kyuubi Attack**

The Sandaime resisted the urge to pound his head onto the table. Why did the Minato have to go and get himself killed? Now he was stuck with piles among piles of paperwork that was just waiting to bite his head off. Even worse was the fact that Minato had sealed the nine-tails in his son. His own son! Now that very same boy was in front of him wrapped in a bright orange blanket and sleeping silently. Well at least someone was happy. Now he had to deal with a council- full of biased civilians, and a large number of arrogant shinobis, that would hate him for the rest of his life if he insulted them. Ah, such was the life of the renowned Hokage.

In front of him sat the council, arguing about what to do with Naruto, the Fourth's legacy. On one side was the civilian council, shouting suggestions like their life depended on it.

" You can't let that demon live! Kill him!"

" Lock him up! He's a demon!"

Similar cries of protests, rang across the room, some of the shinobi joining in. Hiruzen glance toward Jiraiya desperately, there was no way that even him, the god of shinobi, could remove the fear and hatred that the Kyuubi placed in the peoples' hearts. However, he was also not going to let Minato's child die. Catching his eye, Jiraiya sighed. He had anticipated that something like this would happen although the Fourth made it crystal clear in his will that he wanted the child to be treated as a hero. Oh why, why couldn't people be a bit more wide-minded? It would make things a lot easier. And it would leave more time for him to do his "research". Oh the beautiful girls!

" Listen, We will not kill the child. He's innocent! I have checked the seal myself, there is no way that the Kyuubi will be let out!" Jiraiya proclaimed, raising his voice so that he could be heard over the clamor of voices. Hiruzen nodded as Jiraiya talked, adding some credibility to his words, if only a little. In reality, even Jiraiya was unsure of what exactly the seal could do, but he was sure it could hold the Nine-Tails in Naruto, at least until he learned to control it's power.

" Well then, what do you propose we do with him? He can't be sent to an orphanage, there are sure to be attempts on his life. If we leave him unprotected, we could lose a potentially strong shinobi." Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha, growled. It was quite clear that he was quite displeased about the current situation. After all, he, along with many of the other clan heads, were dear friends of Minato. Along with the fact the Mikoto, his wife, was Kushina's best friend.

That's when the oh so powerful Danzo decided to butt in. " I could train him to be an-" His request was immediately answered with a unanimous " NO" from the clan heads. Apparently, everyone knew about his infamously brutal ways of teaching a shinobi. Danzo stepped back with a frown on his face. No one would stop him from acquiring a new weapon.

" What about an adoption?" Tsume Inuzuka suggested, having already been the mother of two kids.

" No, that would put to much power within one clan. I vote against it." Hiashi Hyuuga declared with his head held high. While, the clan heads and the shinobi were discussing the future of Naruto, the civilian representatives were fuming with anger. One such person being Kizashi Haruno. _How dare they let that demon scum live, _he raged. The demon had nearly killed his family and it had completely decimated his house as well as his buisness. Just the thought of it made him want to kill.

" THAT'S IT! I say we kill it!" Kizashi roared, standing up. Cheers of approval followed his declaration, mostly from the civilians. Hiruzen, who had been stuck in a five hour meeting with a bunch of idiots, had just about enough stupid requests about killing Naruto.

" WE ARE NOT KILLING THE BOY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Hiruzen exploded, letting out a healthy dose of of killing intent. The civilians nodded and quickly became silent. Hiruzen took a deep breath before continuing. " Now since you all have proved to be idiotic, bumbling fools, you will all be dismissed from meetings on shinobi affairs. This counts as one. From here on out, Naruto's identity is a S-class secret. Anyone caught telling it will be executed immediately, unless they have specific permission from me. Now LEAVE!" Hiruzen thundered. The civilians scrambled out of the building to avoid getting killed. Snickers were heard from the shinobi as the civilians raced out of the room.

"About time the Hokage told them off!" Tsume laughed.

"Finally! What a bunch of fools!" Anko agreed. Danzo frowned yet again. With the civilians out of the way, most of his support was also gone. Naruto would be far harder to acquire. This would be troublesome, to use the words of a certain lazy genius.

" Alright, now back to business, what will we do with Naruto?" the Sandaime asked. The meeting would drag on until the next day if someone didn't come up with a solution to the problem and he was bone tired. All the emotional and physical stress was taking it's toll on him.

"This is so troublesome," one Shikaku Nara moaned," Why don't the ANBU keep watch over him in shifts? He can stay at a shinobi orphanage, that way even if the ANBU are gone the caretakers can still take out those who harm him. And he'll have a head start on things before he goes to the Academy. This way everyone's happy. He'll even have a relatively normal childhood. It's what Minato-kun would have wanted."

Hiruzen was stunned. Why didn't he think of that sooner? At a shinobi orphanage, all the caretakers were shinobi and they were handpicked by he himself. There was no way Naruto could get hurt. He could even learn a few tricks from the other kids there.

" Well that seems to be okay. Those who agree, please raise your hands." Hiruzen commanded. Most of the shinobi raised their hands. And when I say most, I mean everyone but Danzo , Homaru, and Koharu. The Sandaime smiled, sure Naruto wouldn't have a completely ordinary childhood, but at least he would be happy.

" Well then, Naruto will be going to the shinobi orphanage near the Academy." Hiruzen said.

And so began the life of Naruto Uzumaki.

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**So how was it? It took me about an hour and a half to write, not too long. I will be adding one or two OC's in this and this will be slightly different from the Canon, or a lot different. Who knows? I don't have the plot completely thought out yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Please read and review. I hope you like this chapter.**

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**Five Years Later**

Naruto wasn't stupid, in fact he was far from it. He just put on a mask, a happy face to ignore the glares at his back and the hateful whispers he heard on the street. He knew people didn't like him. Every time he went to buy things in town, people tried to ignore him, or they outright hated him, but no one had hurt him with their fists. He could hear snatches of their conversation, things like "demon", or " never be a shinobi". But they underestimated the will of Uzumaki Naruto and he was determined to prove them wrong. He would become the best shinobi there was. Dattebayo!

And that's exactly what he did, or tried to do. The caretakers at the shinobi orphanage gave shinobi classes for free every weekend. Attendance was completely voluntary. This year he was finally old enough to take them. In the first few lessons, they learned about chakra, drawing on chakra, and hand signs. To Naruto, they were a piece of cake, it was like he was born to do it. In fact, it took him less than a minute to draw on his chakra and create a faint blue glow around him. Kurenai-sensei looked quite impressed, but he wasn't sure why. It was really easy, yet none of the other students could create a glow, but they did draw on their chakra. He felt so warm and fuzzy when he used his chakra. However, this week they were learning chakra control, and he was having a truckload of problems.

Naruto growled as the leaf flew away from him, into the ever growing pile of shredded leaves beside him. For Pete's sake, this was supposed to be the most basic of chakra exercises, yet he had been sitting in the grass for what seemed like hours, trying to make the leaf stick to his hand. Oh, why couldn't it easier, like boiling ramen. All of the other kids could make the leaf stick to them for at least a minute! However, he could get it to stick for about five seconds before it slid off or exploded. It was hopeless, he would never going to get it right. Now how would he become a shinobi?

"Ano, excuse me, but I could help you." a shy voice suggested. Naruto turned around to see a boy about his age, with spiky black hair wearing a black T-shirt and dark blue shorts. Naruto burst out laughing, he just couldn't help it. The boy's hair looked like a duck's butt. With a huff, the boy turned beet red.

"What's so funny, my hair? I knew I should have told kaa-chan to cut it shorter, it looks like a duck's butt, doesn't it? Kaa-san won't let me keep it long like my aniki! It's not fair. It is my hair, right?" the boy asked, clearly embarrassed.

"Y-yeah, gomen. It just looks s-so funny. I think you should grow it out a b-bit." Naruto burst into peals of laughter before continuing," Anyways, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to become the best ninja ever! Dattebayo!"

" As if. My aniki is already the best ninja ever. He's Uchiha Itachi and I'm Sasuke. And besides, how can you become the best ninja ever, if you can't even do the leaf exercise?" Sasuke scoffed.

" Well you should help me then. Then we can both be the best ninjas ever!" Naruto cheered. Over at the edge of the field, Kurenai heard their conversation and rolled her eyes. They still had a long way to go before any of them would be even close to good. At least they were only five, bordering on six. On the hand, Gai, who had been nearby and heard Naruto's claim started a rant about youthfulness, effectively scaring many of the children away from him. They all thought the same thing, _Who is this green monster? _Genma could only hopelessly groan under his breath as he helped another shinobi hopeful balance a leaf. Why did Hokage-sama have to assign him a shift as Naruto's caretakers? Especially one with Gai, the most eccentric shinobi of all time.

" Alright, so first you have to use just the right amount of chakra-" Sasuke began.

" You mean catra, right?" Naruto interrupted.

" No, it's chakra. We learned about it a few weeks ago. You're rather dumb, aren't you?" Sasuke asked. This time it was Naruto's turn to blush.

"S-shut up! It's none of your buisness!" Naruto denied.

"Alright, you should use less chakra, you're using too much, that's why the leaves are getting shredded." Sasuke advised, motioning to the pile of ripped leaves beside them.

" Right, here I go! One hundred time's the charm! Dattebayo!"

Concentrating on the leaf, Naruto began to gradually oppress his chakra. It was hard, almost too hard, Naruto had the chakra levels of a high genin. When he was five! That was more chakra than Itachi or Kakashi had when they were five. Surprisingly enough, it stuck to him. Naruto furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to keep the chakra level steady. _Just a little more,_ he thought. With a grand flourish the leaf burst into shreds, showering both him and the kids next to him. Many of them shot him looks of annoyance as the leaf shreds messed up their concentration. However, Naruto's happy mood would not be extinguished. He had held the leaf to his forehead for nearly two minutes, a new record for him. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so happy. Except for maybe when he discovered the joy and wonder of ramen.

"Sugoi! I did it! Did you see that Sasuke?! I did it! I'm gonna be the best ninja ever!" Naruto cheered jumping up and down.

"Yeah right. I can hold it to my forehead for a whole ten minutes, and my aniki can hold it to his forehead for hours. He's already in ANBU, and he's only eleven! Try and beat that!" Sasuke boasted.

" Your brother's in ANBU?! He's Itachi, right?" A boy sitting nearby asked excitedly. Naruto recognized him as one of the kids who had caught on to the exercise slightly slower than most. Sasuke eyed him, the boy was around six or seven, with unruly brown hair and slightly sharper and longer than normal canines, sorta like a dog's.

Finally, he decided to answer. " Yeah, he's Itachi. What's it to you?" Sasuke asked in a suspicious voice.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, heir to the Inuzuka! I'm going to be powerful and kick ass, just like your aniki!" Kiba declared with a smile, not unlike Naruto's. Unfortunately, their conversation was once again heard by the caretakers. One genjustu mistress in particular, didn't particularly favor a certain brown haired boy's choice of words. After all, she did hate perverts and people who cursed. Well actually only children who cursed, not really adults.

" Did I hear cursing?!" she screamed, ruby eyes glinting dangerously.

"N-no Kurenai-sensei! We didn't curse!" the boys answered, shivering under her threatening glare. It was no secret to them that Kurenai was extremely dangerous when provoked. They had learned that early on in the voluntary lessons that the caretakers of the shinobi orphanage taught. The first to get in trouble was Kiba for using a curse word. After that little incident, no one, not even the other teachers, chunin and jounin, would cross her. Snickers were heard as the boys hurriedly started to the exercises again, their palms clammy and sweaty. Kurenai sighed in satisfaction, such is the life of a teacher. Have fun scaring the crap out of students.

" Hey, so, um, are we friends now?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke and Kiba.

" Of course! How can we not be? After surviving Kurenai-sensei's stare, obviously we'd be friends!" Kiba agreed, in a rather loud tone of voice, that didn't fail to attract many people's attention. Naruto nodded and beamed the most brilliant smile to Kiba. Sasuke also nodded, opting not to say anything and instead focus on the leaf on his forehead. He had to beat his aniki's record! Once again, the trio was caught by Kurenai, who didn't quite... appreciate their negative regard to her "friendly" stare.

" Would you like to repeat that?" she asked, walking up to Kiba. Swallowing, Kiba shook his head in a frenzy, hoping with all his might that she would go away.

"Kurenai-sensei! I need help! I can't get my leaf off!" a girl cried form the other side of the field. She was obviously panicking, and about to cry. Kurenai settled with only giving Kiba a light glare, before scurrying off to help the girl with bright pink her get the leaf off of her rather large forehead.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba all let out a sigh of relief as Kurenai left, their leaves floating off of their heads.

"I'm so glad that Asuma-nii-san is watching us tomorrow." Naruto sighed. Asuma was laid-back and a pretty lazy guy.

" Do you live here?" Sasuke asked in surprise, Naruto didn't seem like the type of person to have been raised in an orphanage. He had always imagined them a bit less loud.

" Yeah, my parents died in the kyuubi attack. Old man says my mom was a really powerful jounin, so I live here. It's not that bad. Everyone here is nice and they teach us things about the Hokages! It's really fun! There are two people who are always here and the rest come here at different times. Haruka-nee-san and Akemi-nee-san are always here. Kurenai-sensei, Gai-nii-chan, Genma-sensei, Asuma-nii-chan,Hayate-nii-chan, and Anko-sensei come here at different times. Anko-sensei is even more crazy than Kurenai-sensei. She loves to torture everyone! Even Gai-nii-chan is afraid of her! Haruka-nee-san is really nice, but she always says 'troublesome' and talks about her nephew, Shikamaru. He's the kid with the pineapple hair, Haruka-nee-san looks just like him, except her hair is longer and she isn't as lazy. But she's still lazy." Naruto babbled, pointing out the people he named( except the ones that weren't there). The jounin around the field chuckled at hearing Naruto's description of Anko and Haruka, but they couldn't say that he was wrong. The explanations were pretty accurate.

"Wow, I'd hate to be you when Anko comes." Kiba commented, shivering in fright at the prospect of a person scarier than Kurenai-sensei.

"I agree, the Anko-san you described sounds scarier than my father. I'm glad she was out of town last week, I would hate to meet her." Sasuke shivered. Nearby, Genma nearly died as he burst into laughter. The kids were just far too entertaining to watch. He was suddenly so glad that the Hokage had given him the job. Funny how fast one's mood could change.

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At the end of the day, the three had become the best of friends, surprising the supervising jounin and chunin, who would of thought the stuck-up Uchiha could have been friends with a rowdy Inuzuka and the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi? Sasuke had spent nearly the whole day telling his two newly made friends about his magnificent older brother as the two listened in awe. When Sasuke stopped, Kiba groaned.

"How is that fair? You get a cool aniki, but I get an older sister who can't do anything. She's not even a genin yet!" he complained. Suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke shut their mouths. Kiba looked at them in confusion, normally they would make fun of him and laugh. Slowly, realization dawned on him.

" She's behind me, isn't she?" he asked, afraid to look backwards. Naruto and Sasuke nodded.

"Oh shit." Kiba cursed.

"KIBA! I'm going to kill you and that stupid Itachi! I'm way better than him!" his older sister raged. It was quite an amusing sight to see Hana dragging Kiba around and punching him. After all, Hana was only nine.

" I'm sorry!" Kiba wept, anime tears falling off his face. Tsume only chuckled as her kids fought each other.

Not long afterwards, Itachi also came to pick Sasuke up. Sasuke immediately dragged Itachi over to where Naruto and a very bruised Kiba stood.

"Look aniki! I made two new friends! Uzumaki Naruto, and Inuzuka Kiba!" he boasted, that was one more friend than Itachi ever had. The only friend Itachi had was Shisui, and he was extremely annoying and also his cousin. So technically, he was only family, not a friend.

Itachi smiled and waved at them, not the slightest bothered by the fact that Naruto was the kyuubi's container.

"Cool! You're Sasuke's brother! Are you really in ANBU?" Naruto asked.

Itachi nodded before telling them," Sumimasen, but we have to go. Otou-san is waiting for us. I don't want to keep him waiting."

"See you later!" Sasuke called as they left.

" Well, nice meeting you kid. But we've got to go home. Maybe you can come over sometime, I'm sure Kiba would like it. And maybe Hana will too." Tsume smiled while walking away. Naruto nearly died of joy at the prospect of a play date with Kiba. He nodded excitedly.

"Alright! see you next class Sasuke! You too, Kiba!" Naruto called, waving as they left. He stood there watching as they left, still giddy with excitement. He was determined to have the chakra exercises down by next week. That was a promise, and he would keep it.

" Naruto, come on, it's time for dinner! Akemi's making ramen! " Kurenai called as she ushered the other children into the orphanage.

Naruto licked his lips in anticipation. Akemi made the second best miso ramen in the world. Ichiraku's ramen held the record. Maybe he could get a few extra servings if he finished quick enough, he always got the leftover ramen. The thought spurred him on as he raced inside. Kurenai smirked, she knew that would get his attention. Now to cook some extra ramen.

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**So, how was it? Sorry for the wait. I can't update too much on weekends or at the end of July to the beginning of August, family vacation. I can update on weekdays though. Maybe not a lot after school starts. Should the Uchiha massacre happen? I'm still deciding. Tell me what you think in reviews please. Constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as ideas. Note: Not all advice will be used. BTW, Kurenai and them are fourteen when Naruto is born. Do the math. And they have been taking care of him his whole life. Guess whose relative Akemi is? Bye! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

Two Years Later

By this time, Naruto had grew to be far more than your average seven year old. He had huge chakra reserves, on par with those of a mid-level jounin, average chakra control, average strength, and unbelievable stamina. He could run and train for what seemed like centuries. More often than not, it was the supervisors that suffered from chakra exhaustion and injuries instead of Naruto. In the short amount of time, he had also established himself, Kiba, Sasuke, and Shikamaru to be the prankster kings of Konoha. Well, not so much Shikamaru, he only did the mathematical processes and formulated the details of the plan. And that was only when he wasn't to lazy to do so, if he was, the plans were left to Sasuke who was the only other one of their group to have even an inkling of self-restraint and strategy. In fact, it had been through a prank they were pulling, that Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba had met Shikamaru and learnt about the ever eating Chouji.

_Flashback_

"Alright, so what should we do today?" Kiba asked, with a mischievous grin on his face. They had been friends for little over a month, but they were already causing hurricanes of trouble for their supervisors. It was currently break time at the orphanage, and Kiba and Sasuke had "coincidentally" met Naruto at the park.

"How about we pull a paintball one on the park today? " Naruto asked, holding some exploding paint balls in his hands.

"I've got plenty of wire. Otou-san won't even notice it's gone and Tachi-nii-chan won't care. He says our pranks make people happy. He said that he's proud of me!" Sasuke whispered, pulling out a roll of wire from his pouch.

"Right, I'll go distract the teachers, um... by um... starting up a sand fight in the playground! Yeah, that's it! The girls won't mind, they're always doing their hair or playing with the other kids love to fight. It's like being a ninja!" Kiba volunteered. He ran off to the sandpit and immediately jumped onto one of the sandcastles. Of course, the kids having spent much time and effort working on it, were determined to get revenge. Picking up fistfuls of sand, they threw it at Kiba. Kiba immediately responded by throwing sand back, effectively starting an all out sand fight. Naruto and Sasuke grinned, this was their chance. Sasuke immediately went to tie the wire to one end of a nearby tree, Naruto ran to loop the wire around an adjacent tree.

Now came the hard part, they had to somehow climb the tree and not let the jounin and chunin see them. Sneaking a glance at the sandpit, Naruto noticed that the fight was still raging on. He turned around to see Anko-sensei and Hayate- sensei walking over to Asuma -nii-chan to help him break up the fight. At this rate, they had around ten minutes left, at best.

" Alright, you give me a boost." Naruto commanded as Sasuke knelt down to pick up Naruto. Jumping from Sasuke's shoulders, Naruto just barely landed of the bottom most branch of the tree. He turned around to drag Sasuke up as well. Now that they were both successfully seated on the tree, they could start. Naruto took out a small wooden catapult he had gotten on his birthday and set it on the branch. Sasuke carefully tied the wire to the end of the catapult that was up and Naruto put a slightly open bag of paint balls onto the lowered spoon-like side of the catapult. Sasuke cut the wire and was just about to secure the catapult when a new voice spoke up.

"Troublesome. You know if you tilt the catapult slightly towards the right, it'll cover more of the play area." a voice above them drawled. Naruto and Sasuke nearly fell off the branch when they heard the voice. Looking up, Naruto recognized the voice, it was Shikamaru, the nephew Haruka-nee-chan talked so much about.

" You sure? How'd you get up there? We needed two people, and I don't see anyone near you. " Naruto asked.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked in a slightly arrogant way as soon as Naruto phrased his questions.

"Troublesome, I'm Nara Shikamaru. I climbed up here, asked for a ladder. Normally, I'd be with Chouji, but he's sick, I like watching the clouds. And I'm sure tilting the catapult to the right will work.I know it." he answered before looking back up at the sky. Naruto and Sasuke shrugged before listening to Shikamaru's advice and moving it to the right a little bit. Looking up, they saw Shikamaru fast asleep and decided to go along with the plan, after all, Anko and Hayate were almost there.

Not a minute later, the entire playground was covered in splashes of hot pink, purple, lime green, bright yellow and sky blue. There were also three extremely pissed off paint-covered teachers. Sasuke and Naruto sat slack jawed at all the damage they had done.

" Wow! Sugoi! How'd you know it would work so well? I think you're good enough to be part of our prank team!" Naruto proclaimed eagerly. Sasuke nodded his affirmation. He may have been of the Uchiha clan, but he knew who was better than him.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered before falling asleep once more, leaving Naruto and Sasuke to deal with the teachers who looked incredibly funny drenched in paint and the kids that were freaking out because of their ruined clothes. They would be in so much trouble if the teachers ever found out it was they did it.

_Flashback End_

Now, once again they were playing on the playground. It was Sunday and the kids attending the orphanage and those that attended the classes were having a picnic. As usual, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru, and Chouji sat in a circle at the edge of the , this time they weren't pulling a prank, they were debating about a new girl who had recently joined the orphanage a week ago. She was four, and they had heard the caretakers talking about her, they had said she was a genius, with a lot of chakra, not quite as much as Naruto's, of course, but with extremely high control over it. High enough to become a medic nin eventually in the future.

" There's no way she can be like that. That's just unnatural." Kiba insisted, glancing at the girl. She was a little ways off sitting under a tree and watching the other kids play.

" Yeah, but Kurenai-nee-san says she's a progidy, no pro-pro" Naruto fumbled for the word.

"Prodigy, Naruto. It means she's really talented, like my aniki." Sasuke explained.

"I knew that!" Naruto said, crossing his arms, and blushing a little. The group rolled their eyes, it was well known that Naruto wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"Troublesome. Why don't we just ask her? She probably knows herself better than we do." Shikamaru questioned, as he stood up, dusting his shirt.

"Yeah, maybe she'll want some chips." Chouji agreed.

" But none of the other kids have talked to her. And if they try, she just runs away." Naruto protested. Akamaru yipped in agreement, he and Kiba had tried to approach her earlier, but she avoided them. She actually ran away from them!

"Well give it a try anyway. Just say hi or something. It won't hurt." Sasuke urged as he pushed Naruto towards the girl. Naruto groaned, oh how he hated being the most sociable of their group.

Gulping he walked over to the girl. Luckily for him the girl had currently turned her interest onto a flower that was near her. A daisy. Naruto quietly tiptoed over to the girl, trying not to startle her. When he was within a few feet of the girl, he uncomfortably cleared his throat. The frightened girl hurriedly turned around.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I, uh, just wanted to know if you wanted to join my friends and I for lunch. " Naruto asked, nervously. Normally, girls brushed him off or ran away. While she tried to answer, Naruto studied her carefully. She had black hair with a somewhat brownish hue in two side ponytails secured by blue bands, and her bangs were brushed to both sides (Kushina's bangs, basically). She had big deep brown eyes that changed hues based on the light, a small nose, pale skin and pink lips. The girl fumbled with her sky blue dress as she decided on an answer. She looked everywhere, but his eyes, clearly hoping that he would just leave. He followed her eyes. The bluebird, the park, the civilian school gates, the leaves, the sky, someone's red shirt. Finally, seeing as he had no intention of leaving, she took a deep breath.

"A-alright, I guess. I am Senju Sumire, heir to the Senju clan. Hashirama-sama is my great grandfather." she answered with a childish voice. Some words were slightly mumbled and warped, but Naruto understood her perfectly.

"Sugoi! You're the First's great granddaughter?! That's so cool! Why didn't anyone tell me earlier?! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I'm a very very very distant relative of yours. I'm going to be the best ninja ever! And Sasuke too!" Naruto informed her as he dragged her over to eat lunch with his friends. He needed to get her before she tried running away again. Obviously, it would take some force seeing as she adamantly tried to distance herself from Naruto's grip.

"Oh, okay." Sumire finished lamely, giving up on trying to run away. Obviously, Naruto had no intention of letting her go any time soon. Truth to be told, she hadn't expected him to be so happy and upfront. She could only listen as Naruto introduced her to all of his friends and pointed out some of the kids he knew.

"- and Hinata's the shy one with white eyes over there." he finished.

"Wow. You talk alot and you know alot of the people." Sumire replied slightly awed. Naruto had pointed out a blond girl, Ino, a boy wearing sunglasses, Shino, a pink haired girl, Sakura, and the previously mentioned Hinata. There were so many other people, people she would probably never remember.

"Don't worry, he has that effect on a lot of people." Kiba laughed, and Akamaru followed him, sort of. She jumped a little, recognizing the boy who had tried to approach her earlier, but Kiba just ignored it.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru murmured. Chouji held out his bag of chips to her,and she tentatively took one before muttering an "arigatou".

"So, are you guys going to the academy next week?" Sasuke asked," Itachi-nii-chan says it's fun." A chorus of agreement responded his statement. They were all looking forward to the academy, it would teach them to be shinobi. Surprisingly even Sumire spoke up, wanting to be a part of this large group.

"I'm going too. O-Old man says I can. He says I'm a special circumstance." She told them. The term "old man" was met with laughter, apparently all of them used it too. As long as their parents or caretakers weren't around.

"So, what can you do?" Kiba asked, curious for once. The girl seemed pretty harmless. She looked like a normal cute little girl with better vocabulary and grammer than most kids in her age, if not all.

"A D-ranked water. I'm working on my earth affinity. I can even do one flower style jutsu, it's a kekkai genkai. I can use it as a shield. I'm also studying seals, but they're hard, and medical ninjutsu, which is also really hard. I think I can heal a cut. That's it." she said. However, the boys eyes were bulging out, this little girl, who was only four could probably beat them all in a fight. Sumire, noticing this began to blush. Apparently, she didn't like being the center of attention like Naruto did.

"Stop looking at me like that. My taijutsu sucks. I can't hit hard and I can't throw weapons well either. I have to get older before I start practicing taijutsu because I'm still too short and I don't have much stamina. But I do want to learn Kenjutsu. I wish I was older." she revealed. The boys found that quite amusing. Or at least Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba did, seeing as their fighting preferences included a lot of hand to hand combat and plenty of kunai and shurikens. Shikamaru and Chouji really wouldn't care either way.

"Troublesome. So you're a mid to long range specialist?" Shikamaru asked.

"I think so. I don't know yet though. I want to keep my options open. But I'm smart, at least probably smarter than the fishcake and the dog boy." she answered smugly. Naruto and Kiba growled while, Sasuke and Chouji laughed. Shikamaru on the other hand was wondering if she would play a game of shoji with him. She seemed like the only one with the mental capacity to learn how to play well. Others his age were just so ... troublesome.

"She got you good Naruto, Kiba." Chouji chuckled. Naruto groaned, great another person to annoy him.

"Hey, wanna come over to my house to play shoji?" Shikamaru asked, finally deciding that a good shoji match was worth the effort of inviting everyone and listening to hes mother complain. He knew his father wouldn't say no and his mother would be happy he was finally doing something other than sleeping.

"What about us?" Kiba demanded.

"Sure, why not. I'll tell tou-san, and kaa-san. Next Wednesday, kaa-san will pick you guys up at the playground during break. Troublesome... Shino and Hinata and Ino will be there, too. Kaa-san's going to invite them too... Troublesome." Shikamaru agreed.

"I'll come. I hope I don't inconvenience your mom though." Sumire said.

"We're definitely coming!" Kiba exclaimed as Akamaru barked.

"Count me in!" Naruto and Chouji agreed.

"I'll ask tou-san. I can probably go." Sasuke told him.

The caretakers, standing nearby all smiled inwardly except for Gai who started once again ranting about youthfulness. The clan heirs would turn out to be the best of friends, they just knew it. Or at least they hoped. The clan heirs of all the major clans in Konoha would all be in one class, that was unheard of.

**I hope you like it. Sumire will be a major character. Tsunade is her aunt twice removed or something! Family relationships are so complicated. Basically, I assumed the First had two or three children and Tsunade was the daughter of one and Sumire is the granddaughter of the youngest. And the clan heirs include Naruto, heir to the Uzumaki. Please review! I'm sorry if the characters are a bit weird. I'm not very good at writing children. Their speech patterns are varied.**


	4. Chapter 4

The following Wednesday, true to his word, Shikamaru and his mother went to the park to pick up Chouji, Sumire, Kiba, Naruto, Ino, Hinata, Shino, and Sasuke(whose father agreed only because Itachi, Sasuke and his mother all nagged him to let Sasuke go). Naruto was jumping in anticipation and excitement, it was the first time that he would be visiting Shikamaru's house. Though they had been friends for nearly two years, he had not once been to Shikamaru's house. Shikamaru was always complaining that it would be too troublesome to clean the house, just so they could come over. On the other hand, Chouji had been to Shikamaru's house many times, and he always brought a huge platter full of chocolate chip cookies. This time was no different. Kiba and Akamaru were inching toward the cookies, hoping to sneak one or two, but Chouji kept batting them away. The cookies were for Shikamaru's mom, not Kiba, he insisted. While everyone else was chatting between themselves, Shino showing Hinata different types of butterflies, Naruto babbling on about how excited he was, Sumire stood at the edge of the crowd, wringing her hands nervously. She wasn't sure that Shikamaru's family would accept her.

"So these are the friends you've told me so much about?" Yoshino, Shikamaru's mom asked. She was curious to meet the nine-tailed jinchuuriki, and Sumire, whose background was classified as an SS-rank secret. Shikaku had warned her about the girl, but now that she had met the girl, she was convinced that Shikaku was paranoid. The girl was a perfectly normal four year old, sure she seemed cuter than the other toddlers she met, but she sure as hell wasn't dangerous. That old man was going to pay for making her worry over nothing.

"Hai. Troublesome... That's Naruto and the girl over there is Sumire. You know the rest of them. Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, pointing out the two kids.

" Well it's nice to meet you, Naruto, Sumire." Yoshino waved, hesitance in her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Yoshino-sama." Sumire bowed. Yoshino couldn't help herself as she picked up the girl and twirled her around, all suspicion gone

" Kawaii! So polite and pretty. Shika-kun should learn more from you!" Yoshino squealed. Shikamaru and Sumire both turned red as she squealed.

"Kaa-san! I'm not a girl!" he protested, not liking being compared to a girl a good three years younger than him.

"Hi Yoshino-san! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Dattebayo!" Naruto proclaimed, saving Shikamaru from his embarrassment. Finding a new target, Yoshino launched herself over to Naruto, and looked him up and down. Shikaku had told her that he was the kyuubi container(the Sandaime trusted Shikaku to not tell many people so he gave Shikaku permission to tell older members of his family), but the boy seemed normal. Okay, not completely normal, he was a bit to the hyperactive side, but Yoshino didn't mind. From what she knew, he was literally a chakra powerhouse. However, he had not yet mastered even the simplest clone jutsu. The jinchuuriki, she decided wouldn't be a threat to Shikamaru.

" Aren't you just so grown-up! If only Shika-kun could be as energetic as you, he's always so lazy." Yoshino praised as she hugged Naruto, who grinned back at her. Naruto liked Shikamaru's mom. She was pretty and nice and she didn't glare at him and she was energetic. Once again, Shikamaru blushed a vibrant shade of red that could best Hinata's any day. He grumbled under his breath, something about "moms", "troublesome", and "annoying".

"A-ano, Yoshino-san?" Ino asked poking Yoshino in the side. Releasing Naruto, Yoshino turned to Ino who was looking at her expectantly.

"What is it, Ino-chan? Can you not come? Inoichi said you could. That old coot! He lied to me!" Yoshino frowned.

"No, it's not that, I was just wondering if Sakura could come as well?" she asked, moving to the side so Yoshino could see her pink-haired friend that hid behind her. Seeing as she didn't seem unusual, except for a slightly larger than average forehead, Yoshino nodded.

" Well of course! Just make sure her parents come pick her up. Now let's get going!" Yoshino declared, leading them to the Nara Manor. It was quite the sight to the the clan head of the Nara's wife leading a parade of children to the Nara Manor. Several times, civilians gave them looks of shock or confusion. It isn't everyday that you see a women with ten children behind her, especially not if one of them is carrying a plate of cookies the size of a wolf. On the way, people stopped to glare. The kids soon found out that they were glaring at Naruto, but he held his chin up high and refused to acknowledge the glares, so they didn't ask. If Naruto didn't care, neither would they.

Not long after, they arrived at the Nara Manor. Yoshino and Shikaku herded the group of noisy and excited children into the garden. Lilies, daisies, bluebells, and cosmos flowers grew everywhere. Those who had not been in the Nara Manor before gazed in amazement at the long corridors and beautiful paintings that seemed to occupy all the walls. Even Hinata, who had lived in a huge manor her entire life, gaped at the beautiful paintings of mountains and waterfalls and fields and rivers. Naruto and Sumire especially, were entranced by the paintings. They had never seen anything like them. Then, they turned their attention back onto the huge field. The older girls immediately ran to gather flowers, a new found pastime. Ino was teaching Sakura and Hinata the different meanings of each of the flowers and what other flowers they looked best with. Meanwhile, the boys and Sumire simple stared at the large open field in the middle of the manor. So much ground to run around and play in! Yoshino's voice broke them out of their thoughts.""You know, if you like them so much, you can come here more often to look at them. Perhaps an hour or two after school? You don't need an invitation, with how much Shikamaru has told us about you guys, you're practically family. " Yoshino suggested, chuckling at their amazement to such small things./p  
"Really? Can we? Thank you so much! Arigatou! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, running up to hug Yoshino. She was so surprised she nearly dropped the vase of flowers she had picked up moments earlier.

Shino only nodded before walking over to the field and crouching down to look for species of insects. Sasuke copying Shino's exampled nodded and bowed before running off to play.

"Arigatou Yoshino-san!" Kiba cheered before following Shino's lead and running into the field with Akamaru. Chouji only munched on his chips. He could already go to the Nara Manor anytime he wanted. His clan's compound was only a few minute's walk away.

"Oh! Arigatou, Yoshino-sama. I hope I won't be intruding onto your family's privacy. I would like to visit." Sumire answered in her ever so polite little voice. She had a charm for making adults do whatever she wanted, and it wasn't the puppy eyes no jutsu.

"Alright then! You can come over whenever you like! Please call me Yoshino-san. You need to lighten up a little, you sound like that old coot, Inoichi." she laughed as she hugged Naruto and talked to Sumire. Shikaku, who stood on the side, narrowed his eyes suspiciously. If the girl did the slightest thing to hurt his Shikamaru, he would kill her, regardless of the Sandaime's orders. He didn't trust anyone who had been with that old traitor, not even if they were only a toddler. As you can see, he was more than a little overprotective of his son.

"Have you played before?" Shikamaru asked, curiously. He was really hoping he wouldn't have to teach her just so he could one day play against her. That was far to troublesome.

"Yes. I've had practice. I'm not that good though. I've only played a little." Sumire answered, smiling nervously. Shikaku narrowed his eyes at her. _When did she have time to practice?_

"You two can play shoji right here. Let's see how you fare against Shika-kun, he's not easy to beat." Yoshino told Sumire as she motioned to the shoji board and the mats on either side of it. Sumire nervously sat down as she waited for Shikamaru to make a move. Naruto ran into the field joining Kiba, Sasuke, and Chouji in a game of tag. However, Shikaku stayed close to make sure Sumire didn't attack Shikamaru physically. He knew she was an accomplice of that old traitor! And he wouldn't stand to let his son be hurt.

Nearly an hour and a half and a plate of cookies later, Shikamaru finally beat Sumire in the game of Shoji. Just one wrong move. Sumire being less practiced and younger naturally was the one to fall into Shikamaru's trap. Nevertheless, Shikaku and Yoshino were amazed. That had been the first time anyone near Shikamaru's age had stood against him for more than half an hour. The previous record having been set by none other than Shino. Sasuke, seeing that Sumire had almost won, jumped in to try to beat Shikamaru while the other kids, including the girls who had just finished flower gathering, watched. He thought that since Sumire had lasted forever against Shikamaru, he should be able to manage at least how long Sumire held out. Sadly, he was very wrong in making that assumption. Less than thirty minutes later, Sasuke was defeated, horribly. He was just too hotheaded and trusting.

Ino laughed," I'm surprised that you actually lasted more than half an hour. Me and Chouji held out for about ten minutes and Hinata's always too shy to try.

"Chouji and I." Shino automatically corrected making Ino pout.

"What?! How did Sumire last longer than me?!" he protested.

"I told you already," Sumire huffed," my taijutsu may be horrible, but I'm not stupid. Don't feel bad. You're just not as perceptive, maybe?" she paused hesitantly as Sasuke glared at her, "You're still smarter than fishcake and dog boy and maybe even Sakura."

The statement was met by peals of laughter from the children and the adults. I may have to give her a second chance, Shikaku thought,em she's nothing like that old traitor. Sumire smiled like a little angel, she just loved hearing her friends laugh.

"Hey! Shikaku-san! Can you show us some cool jutsu?" Naruto asked, begging Shikaku. Glancing at his wife, Shikaku tried to tell her that he didn't want to do it. Of course, she completely "misinterpreted" his glare.

"How about you show them the shadow shuriken technique?" she suggested with a sugary voice that threatened to kill him if he didn't.

"Troublesome." he groaned as he stood up and pulled out two shuriken from his pouch. Throwing them toward the tree in the middle of the field, he formed the ram sign and commanded" Shadow shuriken no jutsu!"

The children watched as the shuriken doubled, then quadrupled and all hit the tree. Their eyes shining with delight, they begged Yoshino to let them try it. Of course she couldn't say no to so many pairs of hopeful eyes so she went into the house to get some blunt shuriken for them to use for practice. The ones she had brought for Shikamaru, except he never used them. Navigating through the maze of corridors, Yoshino finally found Shikamaru's room in the end of the labyrinth. It was dark and a little dusty, but in the end, she managed to find the box of new shurikens.

"Alright, here they are. Try not to kill anyone now. I don't want your parents angry at me for teaching you guys a dangerous jutsu. " Yoshino declared as she set the box down.

Tiny hands immediately reached into the box to grab the shuriken, completely ignoring the warning that Yoshino had just told them.

"Me first!" Sasuke declared as he took the traditional throwing stance. Being part of an important clan did come in handy sometimes. "Shadow shuriken no jutsu!" he commanded as he threw the shuriken. The children behind him watched in anticipation as the shuriken turned into one and then four and hit the tree in a perfect straight line. Shikaku raised an eyebrow, impressive, he thought.

"Wow, that was so cool Sasuke!" Ino cheered. Next to her, Sakura nodded and Hinata blushed and poked her fingers together. Obviously, they were impressed at the level of his skills.

"That was nothing! I can do a hundred times better!" Naruto boasted confidently.

"Well then prove it, fishcake." Kiba dared.

"It's not fishcake for the hundredth time! My name means maelstrom! I'll prove to everyone that I'm better than Sasuke!" he declared, also taking up the throwing stance. Taking a deep breath, he launched the shuriken to the tree and screamed "shadow shuriken no jutsu!". The shuriken doubled then tripled then quadrupled, then he turned them into sixteen and finally they stopped multiplying at thirty two. Most of the shuriken embedded themselves somewhere in the tree. A few of them, however, bounced of the shuriken on the tree and whizzed straight back at them. Out of the six remaining shuriken, one flew right over Naruto's head, cutting off a few pieces of hair before sticking onto the wall behind them. The other five landed in random places along a few of the nearby pillars.

"Oh dear! Are you alright Naruto?" Yoshino asked, terrified of the safety of the cute little blond boy.

"I'm fine! That was so cool! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist into the air," Beat that Sasuke!"

Sasuke simply growled. He'd show Naruto!

"What do you mean 'cool'?!" Ino demanded," You could have cut off our heads!"

"I-ino- c-chan, I-i think N-naruto d-did very w-well." Hinata complimented as she poked her fingers together. Needless to say, she was blushing a very bright shade of red.

"NARUTO! Be more careful!" Sumire and Sakura both screeched, completely disregarding their shy ruse.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered as he winced. Girls could be so loud and annoying sometimes. Their screams really weren't good for your health.

"How about you try, Sumire?" Yoshino offered, seeing as she wasn't very happy with Naruto's performance.

"No, I couldn't. I'd probably hit an innocent bystander. Or I might destroy the field. I can't throw weapons very well, Sensei says it's because I'm too short. And if I add chakra into my throwing arm, the shuriken goes too far or goes too high. I think I'll stick with elemental jutsu for a while." she politely declined.

"Elemental jutsu?" Shikaku asked, intrigued. In his knowledge, usually only chunin or above had experience with elemental jutsu. Shino, who hadn't heard about it before, was also curious. Ino and Hinata paused their bickering about Naruto to look at her in confusion. Sakura just looked impressed. She had read that they were extremely hard to do.

"Hai! I need to perfect water and earth jutsu to perfect my kekkai genkai, the flower wood style. It sucks because my elemental affinity is in lightning, earth style is hard to master. At least for me it is. I can only use one jutsu of my kekkai genkai right now. It's the simplest, but it takes up a good portion of my chakra." she confessed.

"Well, can we see it?" Yoshino asked, curious to see what exactly this flower wood style could do. Certainly it wasn't that dangerous, right?

"I hope you don't mind a few extra trees and flowers in you garden I can't exactly reverse my jutsu. Last time I tried to do it, it wasn't fun." she winced, some of her old memories resurfacing.

"Not at all, jutsu away." Yoshino answered while giving Shikaku a glare. Apparently, Shikaku didn't want the girl to do any unknown jutsu in their house, but Yoshino didn't care. She wanted to see just want this "child prodigy" could do.

"Right. Flower wood style: Sakura shield!" she commanded as she flashed through a slew of hand signs. When she was done, a curled sakura tree was in front of her. The size of a teenager and curled inwards like a circle, the tree completely shielded Sumire from any frontal attack. As an added bonus, Sakura blossoms dotted the tree. A round of applause followed her little show of jutsu. She wiped the sweat off her brow and turned around to smile at Yoshino. She sat down, leaning on the tree, to catch her breath. Jutsu took a lot out of her.

"Sugoi! How'd you do that?" Kiba asked. Akamaru was happily running around the tree, yipping at the falling flower blossoms.

"It's beautiful." Yoshino said as she ruffled Sumire's hair. Truth to be told, she hadn't seen anything like it had been quite a shock that the child knew how to do jutsu that resembled the First's mokuton.

"Thank you. It took me a while to master. I've been trying since last month." she said, smiling up at Yoshino.

"Well I think it's perfect. Now why don't you go play with the others for a while longer. It's almost five now, and you'll have to go back soon." Yoshino advised as she gave Sumire a little push toward where everyone else was playing a game of tag.

By and by, the time ran out and Chouji, Hinata, Ino, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru were all forced to say goodbye. That's when the trouble started. Sakura's father had gone to the Nara's Manor to pick up Sakura. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw her playing and talking to the "demon brat". Shaken up, he dragged her away, not even bothering to say good bye. He told her not to strongever/strong play with Naruto again. Sakura could only nod dumbly as he dragged her home. She didn't understand why daddy wouldn't let her play with Naruto. He was nice and kind and funny, but she pretended like she understood and nodded anyways. If daddy didn't let her play with Naruto, then she would just have to play with him in secret. Naruto, in her opinion, was very kind.

Naruto, on the other hand only stood at the front door looking sad. He knew he had his hopes up when he thought that people had begun to accept him, but it looked like he was wrong. And worst of all, he just lost another one of his precious friends.

"It's alright, Ruto. She's still going to be your friend." Sumire told him as she held his hand./

"How do you know?" he asked her. She didn't know anything about the pain that he felt or the whispers he heard. She didn't know about any of it.

"I just do. And besides you still have Yoshino-san, Shikaku-sama, Sasuke, and Hinata and Chouji and Shikamaru and..."

_**Inside Hokage's office**_

"No Danzo! There has to be another way to stop the coup d'etat. There is no need for such vulgar methods!" Hiruzen protested.

"Then what do YOU propose we do. If we don't stop the coup, Konoha will be thrown into civil war!" Danzo claimed./p  
"He's right Hiruzen We cannot stand by and watch as Konoha falls. It is time we took decisive measures. We have let them walk freely for far too long." Koharu agreed. Homaru also nodded his head in agreement.

The elders, Danzo, and Hiruzen were currently trying to agree on a way to stop the Uchiha's plan to overthrow the Hokage. Danzo, Homaru, and Koharu wanted to completely kill off the Uchiha clan or at least kill the clan head and the clan elders. Hiruzen on the other hand wanted to try and negotiate with them before resorting to violence. Currently they were outnumbering and outvoting him and his ideas. Sometimes Hiruzen really wished that the Yondaime was still alive, he'd know how to resolve this whole mess. Not only was Minato best friends with Fugaku, but he was also very charismatic and persuasive, he would without doubt be able to convince the Uchiha to halt and abandon the coup d'etat. Except Minato was alive. Now it was just himself, Koharu, Homaru, and the old war hawk, Danzo.

Just give me some more time to talk it out. If it comes down to warfare, that's what we will use." Hiruzen sighed. He was getting to old to be wrapped up in politics.

"One month Hiruzen, that's how long you get. No more than that. If you can't convince the Uchiha to surrender by then, we will have no choice but to kill them all." Danzo threatened as he left the room. Homaru and Koharu followed him out not even giving Hiruzen a second glance. Hiruzen sighed. He would get a massive headache just trying to understand the Uchiha never mind trying to make peace with him. This was not the kind of job he imagined he'd have as a Hokage.

_**Nara Manor **_

Sumire had tried and failed to cheer up a moody Naruto. So while they waited for Kurenai to pick them up, Yoshino invited them along with Sasuke to have dinner with her family.

"Why don't you stay for dinner? Inoichi's sister, Akemi, sent over some ramen and I'll go cook some rice and fish." Yoshino offered, seeing as their guardians had yet to pick them up.

"Really? Thanks! Akemi-nee-chan's ramen is the best! No, second best!" Naruto agreed as he perked up to the mention of ramen. However, just as they were going in, Fugaku arrived.

"I'm here to pick up Sasuke, Sumire and Naruto. They will be staying over at the Uchiha compound seeing as Mikoto wants to meet them." Fugaku announced with a grimace. No doubt he found Naruto loud and annoying.

"Oh, well then, you'll just have to come over another day for dinner. Stay safe!" Yoshino called as she bid them farewell. Naruto gave her an enthusiastic goodbye which was followed by Sumire and Sasuke's polite "arigatou"s. She closed the door behind her as she ushered Shikamaru in for dinner.

"Tou-san! You're late again!" Sasuke complained running over to his father. Sumire and Naruto tagged behind him, unsure of what to do. From what Sasuke had told them, it seemed that Fugaku didn't take well to strangers and was very cold, even to his own family.

"There was a clan meeting." Fugaku answered in a monotone voice. It was painfully obvious that he wanted nothing to do with the kids that followed him. But they were all too naive to see that. They simply put it off as Fugaku being his normal cold self.

"A-ano, Fugaku-sama, are we staying the night or just for dinner or just for few minutes?" Sumire asked, breaking the silence. She felt uncomfortable, like someone was following her or watching her, but shrugged it off as simply nerves. Little did she know that the rest of the group also felt that way.

"For dinner. Mikoto wanted to meet you two." he explained, trying to use the least words possible. His voice was tense and his movements stiff. Sumire gulped, this would be an extremely long and uncomfortable walk to the Uchiha Compound at the edge of town. No one talked or laughed. They simply walked in a straight line.

They were nearing the urban parts of the village when the sound of wind was heard behind her. Sumire swirled around, trying to pinpoint who it was. It couldn't have been a civilian because they wouldn't have to sneak behind them. And she had a feeling that it was shinobi, because although there was wind, there was no sound of any footsteps.

Noticing her abrupt stop, Fugaku asked," What is it? Are you going to stand there all day?"

"I heard someone following us. I've had a feeling that they were as soon as we left the Nara Compound." Sumire answered nervously. When a shinobi was following you, he or she usually wasn't good news. She had a feeling that the one that was following them wasn't good news. Her suspicions were proven correct when Fugaku cursed under his breath.

"Damn those useless ANBU. Go away! I'm not trying to hurt the kids!" he growled as he stalked away leaving Sasuke, Naruto, and Sumire to follow him.

Then all hell broke loose. A fire jutsu, combined with a lightning jutsu hurled towards Sasuke at a breakneck speed. Fugaku turned around his eyes widening. This wasn't supposed to happen! They weren't supposed to target Sasuke! Fugaku moved on instinct, running in front of Sasuke with his arms spread out. He wasn't even thinking, his paternal side taking over. The fire and lightning combination hit him head on, slamming him into a nearby tree.

"Tou-san!" Sasuke screamed, frightened for his father's life. That had been the one time that Fugaku had shown any love for Sasuke, and now he might die! Fugaku winced as he stood up.

"Get away from here! Go get the Hokage! I'm fine!" he commanded Sasuke. But inside, he knew he was far from fine. The lightning and fire jutsu had been strong, probably at least a B-rank. He would be in the hospital for at least a week if he got out of this fight alive. At least Sasuke would be safe if he left now.

"Hai!" Sasuke answered as he ran off, Naruto and Sumire following him. Unfortunately, there was more than one ninja that had been following him. A lot more. One ninja separated from the group and chased after Sasuke. They were a little ways away from Fugaku when the ninja caught them all unaware. The ninja hurled a storm of kunai at him from behind. Sasuke heard the whooshing of wind and turned around too late. The kunai were just inches away from Sumire's neck. His eyes widened as he realized he had nothing to block it with and Naruto and Sumire were standing right in front of him! And they were facing the kunai, head on without anything, just like him. They were all going to die if they didn't move. The kunai weren't meant for them, they were aimed at him. He couldn't let them die just because they were with him.

"Get out of the way! You'll die!" he shouted, crying as the kunai came closer. _Move !_ he screamed at them mentally, urging them to go away. Too bad for Sasuke, they weren't that kind of people. They were as stubborn as mules and they definitely wouldn't let their friend get killed.

Splech! Blood splattered onto the ground behind him as his eyes widened.

**I think I've fixed all the weird things now. Hopefully. **


	5. Chapter 5

**So, what happens to Sasuke? Keep reading. Or just read the first paragraph.**

* * *

Sasuke was numb with shock. Blood covered the area around in violent splatters. A wall of vines stretched in front of him, blocking the kunai. Everywhere the kunai struck, a thorn appeared and the entire wall was covered in white roses. The blood wasn't his or Naruto or Sumire's, it had been the person who had thrown the kunai at him.

His eyes drifted to Sumire who had put her hands up in a protective shield over her face. It had been her doing. She was the one who had created the wall and protected all of them. She had successfully used the flower wood style to create a wall and also killed the shinobi. He could still see the residue chakra from her hands, fading away. Wait, residual chakra? Since when could he see that? He shook his head, it wasn't time to think about that right now. If he didn't hurry, father might die.

"Sumire! Snap out of it! Right now we have to go get the Hokage! Snap out of it!" Naruto screamed, running up to Sumire, who had collapsed onto her knees and was looking desperately at her hands, like there was blood on them. Actually, most of the blood hadn't sprayed her, only a single drop landed on her cheek. Sasuke understood what had happened, being in a clan that produced shinobi like rabbits. It was the trauma that accompanied one's first kill, and it didn't go away immediately. To make it even worse, Sumire was only four and she was sensitive. Very sensitive. He knew that she wouldn't recover any time soon.

"Naruto! Grab Sumire and run! Just run! Come on!"Sasuke shouted, lugging one of Sumire's arms and motioning for Naruto to do the same. He wasn't about to leave his friend in the middle of the street where anyone could hurt her.

"You go! Your father needs you! I'll get Sumire to the Nara Manor!" he told Sasuke," We'll only slow you down. Besides, Sumire will feel even worse if she knows that your father got hurt because you were too slow to help."

"Alright. I'm going. Don't you dare die on me." Sasuke warned them as he channeled chakra into his legs and ran through the streets, intent on finding the Hokage.

The ANBU guards that had been watching Naruto frowned, it seemed like they would have to split up, one member informing the Hokage, one member to help carry a traumatic and out of chakra Sumire, and one member to stay and help Fugaku. Inu took the initiative and jumped down from the roof to help Naruto. The other two members silently parted ways, each with their own goals.

**With Naruto**

"Who are you and what do you want?" Naruto snarled putting down Sumire and standing in front of her.

"Relax, I'm here to help." the masked ANBU declared, putting his hand up in front of him.

"What are you going to do with us?" he asked, not trusting the ANBU.

"I'm going to take you two to Yoshino-san's house and then help your friend over there to get over her first kill." Inu said, picking them both up. Naruto kicked and punched the masked shinobi, but to no avail. The ANBU disappeared in a shunshin, fluttering leaves and a pair of footsteps being the only proof that he had been there.

They appeared seconds later on the door mat of the Nara Manor. Naruto jumped out of Inu's arm and rang the doorbell several times for good measure. He was fidgety and jumpy, hoping that Yoshino and Shikaku were home and close enough to hear the doorbell. If it was any of the other clan members, he wasn't sure that they would let him come in. Twenty very tense seconds of waiting later, his wish was granted. A concerned Yoshino opened the door, wondering who could possibly be at their house during dinner time. They hadn't been informed that any visitors were coming. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw Naruto with bloody hair standing with Inu of the ANBU and a trembling Sumire looking at her hands.

"What happened?!" she shrieked, terrified that Naruto or Sumire had been badly wounded. Shikaku, hearing his wife's shriek zoomed to the front door to investigate.

"There are ninja after Sasuke and his dad. One of them threw kunai at us and something happened. I don't know what, but a huge wall of rose bushes rose out of the ground and killed the other ninja. But now Sumire won't stop shaking and crying! Something happened to her! And then this ninja brought us here! He's so mean! He didn't even give us a warning." Naruto rambled, nearly bursting into tears while he was explaining. Yoshino gave the ANBU an exasperated glare, but he shrugged it off. He was used to things like that. People did it all the time when he was hours late to a meeting. Besides, it wasn't like he could stand on the street and explain everything to Naruto, it would take to long.

"What about you come in and explain? Shikaku, grab Sumire, obviously something happened to her." Yoshino ordered grabbing Naruto and the ANBU and leading them into the house. Shikaku sighed and scooped up the girl before following his wife into their house.

Yoshino lead them to the living room, and sat Naruto and the ANBU onto the couch. Shikaku gently placed an unconscious Sumire next to him on the opposite couch. He guessed that she was exhausted and had fallen asleep when he carried her.

"Now, explain what happened slowly. Take a deep breath." Yoshino instructed Naruto and completely ignored the ANBU sitting next to her.

"We were going to Sasuke's place when Sumire heard someone following us. And then Fugaku-sama shouted at him to go away, but they shot a fireball at Sasuke. Then Fugaku-sama ran to save Sasuke and started fighting the ninja. He told us to go and get the Hokage, so we ran back. But then another ninja popped up and threw a bunch of kunai at us and we didn't even notice until they were almost touching us. And then Sumire put her arms in front of her and a big wall of roses popped up and the thorns, I think, killed the other shinobi. But now she won't stop shaking and crying! And then I told Sasuke to keep going and that I would bring Sumire here. That's when the dog ninja showed up and somehow got us here in a second." Naruto said.

"Is this true?" Yoshino asked, turning to the ANBU sitting next to her. The dog ANBU nodded his affirmation. Yoshino frowned, _why would anyone want to attack the Uchiha. Was it another nation?_

"Can you tell me any thing about these shinobi? Anything you remember, like their headband?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head." No, we never saw their faces. They stayed in the shadow. I know that one shinobi was killed because his blood splattered all over the street and it was changing some of the white roses red. He wouldn't be able to survive after losing that much blood." Naruto answered truthfully. Shikaku nodded, so that was why Sumire had been shaken up so badly, he had suspected something like that had happened.

"So do you know why they attacked you?" Yoshino interrogated. Naruto shook his head, he had no idea why those bad ninja wanted to hurt him or Sasuke.

"Kaa-san, what's Naruto doing here again? Troublesome. He got into trouble again, didn't he? And why is Sumire sleeping?" Shikamaru asked with a bored face. It was a well known fact that Naruto constantly got in trouble because of his pranks.

"Yes. It seems that your friends are trouble magnets. Shika-kun, Shikaku, Inu-sama, stay here and watch Naruto and Sumire, I have to go check on something." Yoshino commanded, getting ready to shunshin away.

"Wait! I have to go and see if Sasuke's alright!" Naruto pleaded. He had left Sasuke on his own and if there were any more of those bad ninja, Sasuke would be in trouble.

"If Naruto goes, I go." the ANBU put in. Yoshino sighed. Those two would be hard to shake off. Naruto followed her and the ANBU followed Naruto and if they wasted any more time, Fugaku could die.

"Alright, let's go to the Hokage. Just this once. But Shikamaru, YOU ARE STAYING HERE, understand?!" she ordered.

"Troublesome. I understand." Shikamaru nodded, plopping onto the couch and promptly falling asleep by his father. Yoshino grabbed Naruto and the ANBU and shunshined away.

**Sasuke's End of things**

_Got to hurry, got to hurry and save tou-san, _Sasuke thought. In fact he was so immersed in getting to the Hokage's tower that he didn't notice the tiger ANBU trailing him.

"Stop!" the ANBU commanded. Sasuke skidded to a halt on the rooftop not expecting anyone to still be chasing him in the city. The fight would be too obvious and the civilians would report to the Hokage. What was the ninja thinking? One moment of hesitation was all it took for the seasoned ANBU to grab him and directly teleport him to the Hokage's office.

They landed in a heap right in front of the Hokage. Well, Sasuke landed in a heap after the ANBU carelessly dropped him onto the ground. The ANBU stood tall and proud.

"What is so important that you would come in without a warning?" Hiruzen asked, motioning to the hidden ANBU to unsheathe their swords. He didn't want them to accidentally hurt Sasuke or one of Konoha's ANBU.

Sasuke glared at the ANBU who had unceremoniously dropped him onto the floor before answering. "Hokage-sama, my father has been attacked by ninja. He sent me to tell you. ANBU-san 'kindly' picked me up and dropped me off in here. Literally." he reported all while sending a death glare to the masked shinobi.

"I'm sure Tora-kun didn't mean to hurt you. Now what do you mean when you say a shinobi attacked your father? Was he a leaf shinobi?" Hiruzen asked, his eyes narrowing. It had better not be that old war hawk, Danzo's, doing. Root was disbanded years ago.

"Well, first he attacked me, but tou-san shielded me. And then Naruto, Sumire, and I ran to get you. We were attacked a little while later by another shinobi, but then Sumire protected us by using one of her special jutsus. I think she killed the shinobi. And then the ANBU got me and here I am now. I couldn't see the shinobi though, they hid in the shadows very well." Sasuke elaborated.

"Where are Naruto and Sumire now?" Hiruzen asked, frightened that they had been captured by enemy shinobi.

"Naruto took Sumire to Shikamaru's house because she wouldn't stop shaking. I came here alone." Sasuke revealed.

"Hokage-sama, Inu-sempai went after them. Neko-chan went to go and help Fugaku-sama." the ANBU reported. Hiruzen let out a breath. So Naruto and Sumire were safe with Kakashi protecting them.

"Where's the fight? I'll send a squad of ANBU over." Hiruzen asked. Perhaps they could use this opportunity to mend the relationship between Konoha and the Uchiha.

"It's in the Northern sector A12. About a ten minute run from the Uchiha Compound." Tora reported. Hiruzen frowned. If it was that close, the fight should have attracted the ANBU in patrol.

"Where are the ANBU patrolling that area. They should have been able to help! Were they killed?" Hiruzen asked worriedly. He couldn't afford for more of their forces to be killed. They were already low on manpower because of the kyuubi attack seven years ago. If this was another elemental nation attacking them, he wasn't sure Konoha would make it through.

"I'm not sure Hokage-sama. We were the only people that helped the kids. That much I know for certain. As for Fugaku, I'm not sure." Tora replied evenly. It would do no good to have everyone panic at a time like this.

"Hokage-sama, You have to go and help my father!" Sasuke pleaded.

"Alright. Team Bear, come with me. We're doing." Hiruzen ordered. If anything, this was a good time to get away from all the paperwork that was gradually piling up on his desk.

"What about us?" Sasuke asked motioning to the ANBU beside him and himself. He was not going to stand on the side and watch his father get killed.

"You'll be coming with us. This is your father after all. Is it not? And have you seen your eyes? " The Hokage asked. Sasuke frowned, confused. His eyes, what was wrong with them? They didn't feel damaged. But he could see a light blue glow around everyone. Light blue glow? Like chakra? Everything clicked into place, he had unknowingly unlocked the sharingan! His now red eyes with two tomoe each widened. Hiruzen smiled as Sasuke did a tiny victory dance in his head.

"But Hokage -sama, he-" Tora began to protest, ignoring the comment on Sasuke eyes. Having Sasuke there was only a liability.

"No buts. He's coming along. He has a right to make sure his father's alright." Hiruzen said firmly. Sasuke latched onto the Hokage's hand, determined to help his father and make him proud no matter what. They were about read to go when three figures suddenly appeared behind them.

**Fugaku's Predicament**

Fugaku looked around. Just where was that pesky, no good shinobi hiding?

"Come out. Who are you and what do you want with Konoha?" he asked, scanning the shadows.

"Oh, nothing with Konoha. But I do have something against you." the sly voice answered. _There,_ Fugaku pinpointed. He was hiding behind the convenience store. He narrowed his eyes and stared until he could very faintly see the outline of a person. The raising of an eyebrow was the only sign that he was impressed. If he hadn't known exactly what he was looking for and the general location, he would have completely missed the shinobi._  
_

"What do you want with me?" Fugaku demanded. The figure didn't answer with words, only with a hot stream of fire.

Activating his sharingan, Fugaku shot another jutsu towards the figure."Katon: Great fireball jutsu!" he countered. The two fireballs met in the middle creating a spectacular show of flames. When everything cleared up, he saw several more chakra signatures nearby. _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,_ he counted. Each of them with enough chakra to be an elite ANBU. He cursed under his breath, he had probably just walked right into a death trap. Why didn't he take care of them earlier? He had noticed them as soon as he left his house. How was he supposed to know they'd attack?

The figures hurled kunai at him from all directions, accompanied by several more huge fireballs. Fugaku grimaced, if reinforcements didn't come, he wasn't going to get out of this fight alive, but he wasn't going to go down easily. Where were the patrol ANBU? Had these shinobi killed them all, or were these the patrol ANBU?

" Suiton: water encampment!" he shouted, rushing through the hand signs. Walls of water surrounded him in all directions after he shouted the name of the jutsu. They stopped the fireballs, but not the kunai. Pulling out two of his own kunai, Fugaku jumped, rolled, deflected and ducked to avoid the hundreds of kunai headed at him. However, even with the sharingan, some hit him. One lodged itself in his left shoulder and another in his right thigh. A few scratched his face and his arms. Blood dripped from his wounds, soaking his clothes and dripping onto the ground.

He released the water jutsu expecting to see the shinobi surrounding him. What he wasn't expecting was a group of bugs hovering where the walls of his suiton jutsu had been. _What, an Aburame? What do they want with me? _he wondered as the bugs flew closer.

_"_Katon: phoenix sage fire technique!" he shouted, shooting the small fireballs towards the chakra consuming bugs. The smoke and the heat successfully drove off the bugs and burnt quite a lot of nearby stores. Well, at least the ones around him.

"That won't help. That is because some of my bugs have already gotten on your body. That is because they were riding on those kunai you dodged. You see, they don't mind water." a monotone voice in the shadows spoke out. Fugaku grit his teeth. He should have been more careful! He didn't even notice the bugs on the kunai!

"Doton: Mud wall!" he suddenly turned around and commanded and it was good he did. One of the shinobi had charged up to him from behind with a chakra infused fist. The attack did nothing more than make a dent in the wall, but if he had been hit head on, it would have been bad, to say the least. He was already breathing heavily and moving slower, probably because of the Aburame's bugs. If he had to guess, the bugs on him were especially bred to devour the maximum amount of chakra in the minimum amount of time.

"Looks like you're slowing down." a distinctly feminine voice remarked. A Konoha ANBU landed beside him and observed the already destroyed street.

"Yugao!" Fugaku remembered. She had been one of Kushina's students along with Anko and Kurenai, he would never forget how much that sickly sweet voice annoyed him.

"That's me, old man. Why do I even bother wearing this mask. Everyone in Konoha already knows it me. Looks like you're not doing too well. Who are these people? I had to fight one just to get to you. Damn was he hard to beat." Yugao wondered.

"I don't know who they are or, huff, why they are after me." Fugaku claimed, but inside he was pretty sure it was because of the coup d'etat that the Uchiha were planning.

"Tut tut , no talking during fights." one of the shinobi remarked. Once again, a large number of bugs swarmed them. Fugaku and Yugao did the only logical thing. Use a fire jutsu.

"Katon: Phoenix sage fire technique!" Fugaku ordered doing the hand signs as fast as he could. He did not want anymore of the chakra draining bugs on him.

"Katon: Great fireball jutsu!" Yugao echoed, following Fugaku. The two fireballs burned brightly, warding away the bugs that threatened to eat away their chakra.

"Why in the world is there an Aburame targeting you? Did you destroy their compounds or kill their bugs?" Yugao asked glancing at Fugaku like he was a mad man. Nobody messed with the Aburame's bugs.

"No! I didn't do any such thing. Don't accuse me of acting so lowly." he growled.

"Well whatever you did couldn't have been good." Yugao remarked after dodging another volley of kunai.

"I have not done anything wrong, so stop trying to accuse me of doing so. Suiton: Hand of Waves!" Fugaku continued to talk as he shot a stream of water from his hand to quench a fire jutsu, a fire dragon, to be exact. Unfortunately, the Aburame's bugs were extremely fast acting and he only managed to created a thin stream of water to counter a fire dragon. Obviously, it hardly made a dent as the dragon slammed into him with full force.

"Fugaku!" Yugao screamed as he skidded on the street stopping a distance behind her. He may not have been an extremely close friend of hers, but she owed Kushina to keep him safe because he was a very close friend of Minato. She ran to his side checking to make sure he was alright.

"Get up! Kushina and Minato would never forgive me if you didn't, you bumbling idiot!" she screamed. Yugao didn't care if she was calling the clan head of one of the most important clans in Konoha a bumbling idiot, she just wanted him to get up. When Fugaku didn't get up, she feared for the worst. He wasn't dead, was he?

"I'm fine, just out of chakra. Those damn Aburame kikkai drained my chakra. They've stopped though." he explained after catching his breath and opening his eyes.

"You scared me half to death! Are you sure those bugs are off of you?" Yugao asked.

"They've moved to you now. You should go, if you don't, neither of us will live. " Fugaku advised. It was one of the few times in his life that he wasn't being selfish. He understood why they were attacking him, the Uchiha coup. But that didn't mean he would drag innocent people into the mess as well.

"No way. I'm staying put until the reinforcements arrive. The patrol ANBU were killed, so it might take a while. Tora should be able to explain everything to the Hokage. Minato and Kushina would never forgive me if I left you to die. And neither would Naruto and your son and Sumire or any of the Uchiha in ANBU. And Mikoto would never forgive me either. Genma, Ebisu, Kakashi, Gai and Hayate, they would hate me for leaving a shinobi of Konoha to die, even if you are retired and losing power." Yugao claimed drawing out her swords and standing in front of Fugaku. Somehow, Fugaku felt as though she knew about what they had been planning.

It was then that Fugaku realized that people in Konoha did indeed care about the well being of the Uchiha even if they were only doing it to repay a debt to Minato, they still saw the Uchiha as comrades and friends. It had been the Uchiha all along that shut themselves out and pretended that people didn't care. And although there had been unsatisfactory comments about the Uchiha, you can't please everyone. Fugaku smiled,_ I know what to do now_, he thought.

* * *

**So, will Fugaku be killed or not? Please review. I'm sorry if Fugaku sounded a bit out of character, but he just realized something very important. I hate the spell check!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Now you will find out if Fugaku dies or not. Hope you like it!**

* * *

He knew the shinobi were after him because of the Uchiha's plans. He had one chance to clear everything up and save his clan and his family. No doubt there would be unnamed shinobi going after the clan elders and members of the council. Fugaku cleared his throat. This had better work.

"Stop, do not attack her. Hear me out." he ordered, standing up shakily. They could kill him and Yugao any minute, both sides knew it. Fugaku may have once been a jounin and Yugao was an ANBU, but they were outnumbered and out skilled. These shinobi were just playing with them.

"Spit it out." one of the shinobi hissed. This man was wasting their time. He had things to do and places to be. If Fugaku wasn't killed or subdued by the morning, this mission would be a failure. They shouldn't have been so lenient at first, they hadn't realized that Fugaku would be so hard to kill.

"The Uchiha will not rebel. I realize that we have made a grave mistake in choosing to rebel against Konoha. If you would let me go, I'll arrange for the coup to be stopped. If you kill me now, the coup will happen. The council will not listen to Itachi's demands." Fugaku assured them. The shinobi in the shadows seemed to ponder about it.

"What do you mean Fugaku? The Uchiha were planning a coup?!" Yugao asked. This piece of information was new to her. Why in the world were the Uchiha planning a coup? They were practically royalty in Konoha. Did they want even more power?

Fugaku held out a palm to silence her as he waited for the shinobis' answer. Either they would believe him and let them go or they would pin their hopes on Itachi. It could go both ways, Fugaku wasn't sure which they would pick.

"Alright. One week, that's all we're giving you. We are the ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth. We work in the shadows. If you don't stop it, we will know and you'll be sorry you ever met us." the leader of the group said. Fugaku nodded as the ninja left in shunshins leaving no evidence that they were ever there.

Suddenly the adrenaline left him and chakra exhaustion set in. He collapsed onto the ground, thankful that he had been able to delay the shinobi and well, be alive.

"Are you alright?" Yugao asked, seeing Fugaku fall. He nodded weakly, it had been a rather exhausting day and he still had to deal with the clan elders. His head spun at the prospect of just having to see them. How was he going to explain to them what happened?

"Fugaku, Neko!" voices shouted as the Hokage and a squad of ANBU appeared in front of them.

"Tou-san! I was so worried you would die!" Sasuke cried jumping out from the group of ANBU and latched onto his father. Immediately after he jumped out, Fugaku noticed his red eyes. Sasuke unlocked the sharingan!

"I'm fine, but if you don't get off, you will likely break one of my ribs. Now let me see your eyes. Did you unlock sharingan?" Fugaku answered, trying to keep the smile off of his face. He was so proud of Sasuke, he would become a fine shinobi one day.

"Gomen, tou-san, but we were all worried about you. I got my sharingan! When the shinobi attacked, I got scared and now I have my sharingan, but I can't get it off now. " Sasuke said, getting off of his father and showing Fugaku his sharingan with two tomoe lazily spinning in it.

"Good job Sasuke, you managed to alert Hokage-sama and you gained your sharingan. Two tomoes at the first time! That's my boy. Now to disable it all you have to do is cut the chakra going to your eyes off. " Fugaku praised. Sasuke smiled his widest. It was the second time in his life that his father had praised him and it meant alot to him. Now he just had to disable his stubborn sharingan eyes.

"Would someone tell me what happened?" the Hokage asked, confused that the only people who were there were Fugaku and Yugao. Where were the attackers? Did Fugaku and Yugao beat them when a whole squad of ANBU couldn't?

Fugaku, suddenly overwhelmed by dizziness fell down unconscious. He barely even registered the Hokage's unanswered question. The last thing he saw were the panicked faces of Sasuke and Naruto clouding his vision.

* * *

Fugaku awoke to a searing pain in his head. When he opened his eyes all he saw was white, white and more white. White sheets, white bed, white walls, even a white flower in a white vase on a white drawer. Oh how he hated the color white.

"Are you alright, Fugaku-san?" a voice asked. Turning over he saw the Hokage sitting next to his bed. Apparently, he was in the hospital, probably from chakra exhaustion and burns, he guessed.

"Ah yes, Hokage-sama. How long have I been here?" Fugaku asked.

"Only the night. You are lucky that you didn't sustain anymore damage. Would you mind telling me what happened yesterday? I would like to here it from your point of view." Hiruzen asked.

"The shinobi yesterday targeted me because of the Uchiha's plan for the coup d'etat. I assume you are already aware of this, correct?" Fugaku asked.

"Yes, I already knew of your plans." Hiruzen admitted.

"Well, I think that the shinobi yesterday wanted me to stop the coup d'etat. And I agreed after being beaten down by them. When they left they said something I didn't quite understand. I never saw their faces, so I assume this was a clue regarding their identity. Also, one of them was an Aburame, those bugs drained my chakra. They couldn't have been ANBU though, they killed the patrolling ANBU. " Fugaku revealed.

"What did they say?" Hiruzen asked with a sneaking suspicion that all this was linked to Danzo.

" We are the ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth. Do you understand?" Fugaku asked. He was curious to know who had attacked him.

"Curse that old traitor! He said he wouldn't make a move!" Hiruzen raged. He knew exactly who had been targeting Fugaku and he wasn't happy about it. _I __thought I dissolved Root years ago. That slimy old bastard. _Hiruzen raged internally.

"Hokage-sama, if you don't mind, may I ask you some questions? They aren't about the shinobi who attacked me, if you don't want to tell me, I don't mind." Fugaku asked hesitantly.

"Of course. Ask away, I will answer to the best of my ability without revealing any of the village secrets." Hiruzen answered. Perhaps he could start mending the broken relationship of the Uchiha and the village right now.

"Where was the experiment girl, Sumire? I noticed she wasn't in the group. Did she die?" Fugaku asked. Mikoto had very much wanted to meet the girl that was new to the village and she would be .

"Don't call her that. It wasn't her fault she got stuck with that slimy old traitor. Sumire, well, actually she made her first kill." Hiruzen told Fugaku.

"What? Her first kill, who'd she kill, a civilian?"

"I just learned about it from Yoshino-san after you were carried to the hospital. It seems that one of the shinobi that trailed you went after Sasuke. He tried to kill them Sumire's defense mechanism kicked in. She created a wall of roses to block the kunai the man threw at them, but the thorns also killed the man. He was caught in the middle of the wall. We can't even get his body out, the thorns are covered in a lethal poison. She's exhausted, emotionally and physically. Right now she's at the shinobi orphanage, Inu is helping her get over her first kill."

"I see. How did you all get to me? And why was Yoshino there as well?"

"After Sumire killed the shinobi, Naruto carried her to the Nara Manor to get help because she was paralyzed and wouldn't stop shaking. Sasuke went to find me."

"You didn't answer my question Hokage-sama. How did Yoshino get to me?"

" Well, **Flashback Start**

Hiruzen turned around as soon as the three people landed. What was it with today and people suddenly barging in? The ANBU were tense, knowing that it could be other shinobi wanting to attack them. It would make sense after all, given the circumstances. When the leaves cleared, Inu and Yoshino holding Naruto were standing in the middle of the office standing in a pile of newly blown in leaves. They were pale and sweaty, especially Naruto.

"Naruto! What happened?!" Sasuke asked, afraid that they had been hurt.

"What is it? Has there been another attack?" Hiruzen asked, thinking that perhaps all of the clan heads were targeted. It wasn't a very bad theory considering what had happened.

"No, we were coming to inform you of the attack on Fugaku Uchiha." Inu reported. Hiruzen let out a sigh of relief. It seemed they were only targeting Fugaku. Perhaps they wanted to steal his sharingan.

"We were just going. Come along. We need all the extra help we can get." Hiruzen offered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Inu agreed before they shunshined out of the Hokage tower.

**Flashback End**

**-**and that's what happened." Hiruzen finished.

"I see. Can I ask you for one more favor before you leave?" Fugaku asked.

"What is it?"

"Can you summon the clan elders hear. I'm calling off the coup d'etat."

"Alright. I shall take my leave now. I will inform the elders right away. I'm glad you had a change of heart. " Hiruzen nodded. Thank goodness the Uchiha weren't planning a coup. It saved him a huge headache and a great number of shinobi.

Minutes later, two old retired shinobi appeared before Fugaku.

"Why have you summoned us Fugaku?" the elders asked.

"I'm calling off the coup. This village has done nothing to disrespect us. Our shinobi can still join the ranks and we are the police force. We have only been shutting ourselves away. I realized that many shinobi in this village think of us as comrades and friends so I'm calling off the coup. we will not take over the leaf. That is my final decision." he announced, smirking at the shocked faces of the clan elders.

"What are you saying?!" Daisuke raged," We've been planning this for years!"

"And now I am calling it off. I am clan head, this is my decision." he declared. He knew the elders had no choice, but to listen to him, otherwise they could be executed for treason.

"This won't be the end, Fugaku." Daisuke threatened as he turned to leave. Atsuko and Hachiru followed his lead.

"Stop. I am hereby dissolving the clan elders. From now on, matters of the clan will be solved by the clan head and the council only. You are dismissed." Fugaku ordered. The old croons had abused their power for far too long as far as he was concerned.

The former grit their teeth and muttered profanities as they left the hospital room, leaving Fugaku in peace. Well at least until his family was allowed to visit. Then Mikoto and Sasuke would babble on forever. He got a headache just thinking about it. At least Itachi would be quiet.

**Hiruzen's side of Things**

He immediately shunshined to his office after alerting the Uchiha clan elders. That old crook Danzo! How dare Danzo try and interfere in his work!

"Get Danzo for me. Now." he told his secretary, barely concealing his killing intent. He wanted to smash that bastard Danzo right through the floor right now. The secretary, sensing his anger, quickly informed a shinobi to get Danzo.

A long while later, Danzo hobbled into his office.

"Why have you called me here?" he asked.

"You know perfectly well why. I want the name of all your root agents and their abilities as well as their right now. I know they still exist. And I want you to tell me why in hell you ATTACKED FUGAKU!" Hiruzen demanded, letting his killer intent flare.

"Hiruzen, what makes you suspect I still run root. You disbanded it years ago." Danzo lied, hoping to get away with his wrongdoings.

"Don't play coy with me. Your shinobi left a message for Fugaku. I want answers now!" Hiruzen demanded.

"What do you mean, I would never do anything like that." Danzo denied.

"We are the ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth. Who does that sound like? Confess, and I won't send you to Ibiki for interrogation."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me."

"A-alright, you caught me. Root still survives. I work in the dark, you work in the light, isn't that how it's always been? Now for the issue of the Uchiha, if I hadn't interfered, would the Uchiha have stopped the rebellion? Answer me honestly Hiruzen. Would they have stopped?"

"No. Perhaps not. But you have no right to interfere."

"It was for the good of the village. Even you cannot deny that, Hiruzen."

"True. Now I want that paper with the names and abilities of every single root member and the ones young enough to will enter the academy. The older ones will be trained in ANBU and you are hereby stripped of your position and occupation as a shinobi. Is that clear?" Hiruzen asked. This was the last time that Danzo was getting away with anything.

"I...understand, Hokage-sama." Danzo forced out. He had pushed Hiruzen too far, and he knew it. Antagonizing Hiruzen any more would likely result in his death.

"Leave. I never want to see you again. Remember, you will be under watch 24/7. Do anything suspicious and you are dead." Hiruzen threatened. He didn't have anymore energy to deal with traitors, Orochimaru had taken everything he had.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Danzo bowed as he left the room. The elders would hear about this and no doubt they would be furious. Perhaps they could convince Hiruzen to reestablish him as a shinobi.

Hiruzen banged his head on the table as soon as Danzo left. There would be so much paperwork for this! He groaned already massaging his poor cramped hand. And he would have to explain everything to the council. He could just feel another headache coming up.

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**So how did it turn out? Next chapter you'll probably see Homaru and Koharu's reactions. Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Mysteries solved in this chapter!**

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**Uchiha Council-A week later**

The entire council was in an uproar. Fugaku sighed, he knew this would happen. Why did he have to act so impulsively and cause so much trouble for himself? Uchiha had wanted to overthrow Konoha for years and now they finally had a chance, but he was preventing them from doing it. Understandably, there was a lot of fuss over this.

"Fugaku-sama, why have you called it off? I don't understand. We were so close to taking over Konoha." a concerned council member asked.

"I'm simply giving Konoha a second chance. If the ANBU had not stepped in, I would be dead now." he said. It wasn't necessarily all true, but if it would calm down the council, he could afford to tell some white lies.

"Have the elders agreed to it?" another member asked.

"Actually about that, the elders are now part of the regular council. Their votes are only worth one point now." Fugaku explained, bracing himself for the headache that would come along.

"NANI?!" the councilmen exclaimed.

"Fugaku-sama, don't you think that's a little harsh?" his cousin, Aiko, asked.

"No, this last incident has allowed me to see how much I have been swayed by their ideals. They have much too much power. Konoha is a military settlement, not a democratic government and all of you would do well to remember that. Are there any more concerns? I'm not feeling well and would like to get home." he growled. The headache had started.

"But Fugaku-sama, you can't do that! The elders have advised the clan head since the beginning of the Uchiha." a council member protested. True it was an Uchiha tradition, but Fugaku felt that this generation would be better off without the elders.

"I can and I will, my power is absolute in this clan." Fugaku asserted, certain of his decision.

"Sir-"

"I can and I will. Any other objections?"

The council members made no move to talk. Fugaku sighed, relieved. That had been settled relatively quickly. The shutting down of the coup had taken a lot more time, the entire morning in fact. It was already three and all of them had been sitting in the same room since ten in the morning complaining about the new changes. He supposed that even the council members had gotten tired of the elders' authority in the clan so the second issue was solved in a matter of minutes. Now he could go home, finally. Oh how he despised council meetings! He hoped Sasuke wasn't home yet, Sasuke worried almost as much as his mother. It was horrible when he had been in the hospital.

**Flashback start**

"Tou-san! Are you alright? The doctor said you had to stay here for five days!" Sasuke burst in screaming. Fugaku had just fallen asleep and now his noisy, distraught family was in here. His head was already sore. He sighed, that's what family did he supposed, but did they have to be so loud?

"Fugaku! What were you thinking taking on those shinobi by yourself?! Why didn't you send up a flare?!" Mikoto screeched.

"Tou-san, I'm glad you're alright." commented the ever stoic Itachi. Well at least Itachi wasn't making such a big deal out of things. But he guessed that Itachi had seen much worse in ANBU and the kyuubi attack as well as the end of the Third Shinobi War. Now, why couldn't Mikoto be more like Itachi. She had seen worse, but she was worried for him when he wouldn't even have a scar? Love did weird things to your mind, he would never understand it.

"Calm down. I'm fine, but you will give me a headache. How can you scream so loudly?" he asked, his family's throats never ceased to amaze him.

"Uchiha Fugaku, you tell me right now why you didn't send that flare when you were attacked!" Mikoto ordered, her hair starting to rise up behind her as she gained a frightening aura. Fugaku gulped, when Mikoto was mad, you should run for your life.

"I couldn't. I forgot all about it and I used my last one capturing those theives earlier. I couldn't get any extra powder because I had to pick up Sasuke and his friends." he explained sweating all over the bed sheets.

"You were late!" Sasuke pointed out.

" Oh well that's alright. But don't you dare worry me like that one more time. Got it? And don't walk so slowly, for kami's sake. Would it hurt you to walk a little faster?" Mikoto asked. When she heard that her husband was in the hospital, she feared the worse. Although sometimes he was as cold as ice and didn't seem like he had a heart, he was still her husband and the clan head.

"Yes Mikoto." Fugaku answered, relieved that the crisis had been averted. If he had answered the question in the wrong way, he would probably be stuck in the hospital for another month! Sometimes Mikoto was even scarier than Kushina when she was mad, and that was saying something.

"Tou-san, I was so worried. Will you get better tomorrow? I want you to come to the Academy with me tomorrow because it's my first day. Itachi -nii-chan can't come because he has a mission and kaa-chan can't come because she has to take care of the house, so will you come?" Sasuke asked hesitantly. He thought that maybe his father loved him enough to get away from the hospital and the duties of clan head to accompany him for two hours. Just two measly hours.

"Fugaku..." Mikoto warned, a threatening tone in her voice.

"Tou-san, I think you should go." Itachi offered. Sasuke beamed widely at Itachi before looking back at his father. Fugaku groaned under his breath. His family was ganging up on him because he was injured. How was that fair?

"I'll ask the doctors if I can go, but if I can't that's too bad." Fugaku answered, caving in to his family.

"Arigatou tou-san! Oh and Naruto told me to tell you to get well soon. He couldn't come because he's playing with Sumire to keep her mind occupied." Sasuke told him.

**Flashback End**

_Oh that's right, Sumire had her first kill that day. I hope she's better. _Fugaku mused. His thought were cut short by sounds of laughing and screaming in Sasuke's room. _That's weird,_he noted. Sasuke's there by himself, what's he laughing about? Perhaps Itachi was there?

He walked up to the door and opened it, determined to find out just what was going on. When he looked inside, he saw Naruto, Kiba, Sumire, Shikamaru, and Chouji all there.

"What in going on here? I was not informed that you were having friends over." he said in an icy tone.

"Oh, sorry to bother you. We were too loud, weren't we?" Sumire asked.

"Yes, very. I could hear you from outside. Now would someone tell me why you are all here?" Fugaku asked.

"Tou -san! Ano, Sumire and Naruto are staying over for a while, kaa-san said they could. Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino are just visiting." Sasuke told him nervously.

"Yeah, we'll be going now." Kiba added on. Akamaru barked and followed Kiba as Kiba took his stuff and bolted out the door. The rest of them followed his example and bowed before leaving quietly.

"Sorry to trouble you Uchiha-sama." Chouji added as he followed Shikamaru and Shino out the door. Fugaku watched as they left, he would have to have a talk with Mikoto later. She was letting too many people come into their house.

Now the only people left were Sumire, Naruto, Sasuke and himself. Fugaku went into the room and sat down.

"Now what do you mean by staying over for a while?" he asked.

"Kaa-chan said they could stay until they orphanage found more teachers. All the kids at the orphanage that are attending the Academy are being sent to live with different clans for a while because the jounins and chunins that were watching them were called back for active duty. Kaa-chan said Sumire and Naruto could stay here until they hired more shinobi." Sasuke explained.

"Yeah. And Kurenai-sensei made tobetsu jounin and Anko-sensei is joining the torture and interrogation unit! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered. Kurenai was tobetsu jounin now, huh. Kushina would be so proud of her students and Mikoto was probably already celebrating.

"I see." he answered.

"And now Hokage-san says that even if they aren't watching us anymore, all of the caretakers will still be able to visit between missions!" Naruto grinned Fugaku nodded. How nice of the Hokage.

"How are you?" he asked the youngest of the group.

"I'm good. Inu-san helped me get over it." Sumire smiled. Inu had been a great help to her after she killed the shinobi. She suspected it was because he was very close to her age when he made his first kill as well.

**Flashback Start**

Sumire groaned as she woke up. All her limbs were so sore and her mouth was dry. Her eyelids were heavy and she didn't want to wake up. She just wanted to sleep forever. Cracking open her eyes, she saw red.

"Aah!" she screamed, remembering the previous day's events. She sat up and looked around, hoping there was no red, but there was. Everywhere. Red, the blood, it was everywhere. On her, on the walls, on the floor, even on the bed. It was everywhere. It wouldn't go away and it wouldn't wash off. Her eyes started to tear up and she began to shake. All this blood, and it was all her fault. She had killed that person! All the blood! All the redness! She couldn't stand it!

"Calm down! Stay calm. Just take deep breaths and the blood will go away." a voice told her. _Anything, anything to make this blood go away. I'm not a murderer_ she thought as she took big breaths of air. Gradually, her vision cleared. She was at her room at the orphanage and there was a mask staring at her.

"Aah!" she screamed again. How did that mask get in her room? And did it just talk to her?

"Calm down. Look at me, I'm just a person." the voice said again. Even though she couldn't see under the mask, she could tell the person was amused. When she looked again, she saw the body of the person. She breathed a sigh of relief, thank goodness, she wasn't dreaming again.

"How did you know? How did you stop the blood?" she asked.

"I'm a shinobi. We either kill or get killed. It's nothing to feel guilty about. I've felt like you many times before." he soothed.

"I'm a murderer, and I'm only four! How many more innocent people will I kill? This isn't even my first time. I don't want to kill more innocent people. How many more times will I have to do it?" she asked, quivering.

"Don't think like that. If you hadn't killed that shinobi before, would Sasuke and Naruto have lived?" the shinobi asked her. Inside he was confused, _what did she mean when she said she had killed before?_ The Hokage had said that it was her first kill.

"But I've killed so many innocent people too. That day, so many died. " she said, the light fading from her eyes. Inu cursed. This wasn't good!She was going to collapse and drown in her memories, she was going to end up like him.

"How about you tell me what happened, I'll help." he offered, hugging the little girl. It broke his heart to see someone so young have to kill. For kami's sake, she was four. He had his first kill when he was seven. To force a child to kill at four was just, just unspeakable!

Sumire didn't say a thing, only sat on the bed as Inu let go of her. He was worried, she had to snap out of it! He pulled at his gravity-defying hair trying to think of a solution. Inside he was panicking. After what seemed like eternity she spoke up. At first, he could barely even hear her. Her voice was just a whisper, floating in the wind.

"I don't remember much. It really wasn't that bad. With Orochimaru. I remember missing my parents, but Orochimaru-sama was…kind. I don't remember the experiments. I remember him. I remember how kind he was to me. I remember him teaching me the jutsu. I remember him caring for me, comforting me."

Kakashi was confused. Perhaps this girl had mixed up some people?

"I know. In Konoha, he is a villain. But I … I … he took care of me. He took my parents away, sure, but I don't remember them, I remember him nurturing me."

"Sumire…"

"No! You have to understand. He was nice… he didn't seem mean. He looked a little suspicious, but he was kind to me. I can't remember him ever harming me just to harm me. Everything was fine until the Konoha shinobi came. They just stormed in. One minute everything was fine. The next, Orochimaru-sama was gone and all that was left was a group of strangers. They took away everyone! All my friends! They took them and killed them! Orochimaru –sama and Kabu-kun were gone. I … I …"

"It's alright."

"I couldn't do anything! They said all my friends were dangerous! They took them away!"

"Sumire… Try to understand. Those friends of yours…" Kakashi paused. How would he break this gently to her? How would he justify their actions?

"I do. I do understand. My friends, Juugo, Kimimaro, they would have been a danger… I was a danger, but I am also a Konoha bloodline."

Kakashi searched for a response. Something that would take her mind off this.

"They protected you. Don't dwell on it. Those memories will haunt you for eternity, but use them as a way to excel. Become a shinobi to make them proud and protect those close to you so you will never see one of your friends die again." Kakashi told her. On the inside, he was laughing bitterly._ Who are you to tell her what to do? Look at yourself, pining away at your team's grave every morning. What a fine example you are! _he said inside his head. He was such a hypocrite sometimes.

"I'll try. The memories never fade do they?" she asked him, wiping away her tears. He shook his head as he smiled sadly, he knew that full well.

"Thank you, I think I can get better now. I don't regret killing that shinobi now. If I hadn't he would have killed us" she smiled, though it was forced.

"Why don't you go play with Naruto now? I'll tell Hokage-sama that you've gotten over it." Kakashi said as he ruffled her hair amiably.

**Flashback End**

"That's good to hear. I'm glad you got over it." he told her in a kind voice. Somehow, this little girl had thawed his heart, just a little.

"Tou-san, kaa-san says she wants to speak with you after you go to the Hokage tower for a meeting." Itachi reported to him from the doorway.

"Itachi-nii-chan!" Sasuke called excitedly.

"Another meeting?" Fugaku asked. Usually when Itachi came home early, Fugaku was summoned to a meeting. Wasn't one meeting enough in a day?

"Hai, I'll watch Sasuke and his friends while you're gone." Itachi informed him. Fugaku groaned as he got up and shunshined to the despicable council meeting.

**Hokage Tower**

Hiruzen looked down at the shinobi assembled. He would guess that most of them would be happy with the change.

"I have called you all here to inform you of a change." Hiruzen started. The shinobi and clan heads finally settled down after hearing him talk.

"Shimura Danzo has now retired as a member of the council and as a shinobi." he proclaimed. Of course, everyone could tell from the tone of voice that he used, that Danzo had not voluntarily agreed to retire. The news was met by cheers and smiles, at least from the council The elders, on the other hand weren't so happy.

"What is the meaning of this, Hiruzen?" Homaru asked.

"As I have explained to you, Danzo has retired." he said, keeping on a poker face.

"Well then, I propose that we induct him back into the council." Koharu said.

"Then so be it. All in favor of bringing Danzo back?" Hiruzen asked, although it was already very apparent what the results would be. Homaru and Koharu raised their hands However, no one else moved a muscle.

"All in favor of Danzo's retirement?" Hiruzen asked after a few minutes. The shinobi raised their hands in unison, some like Tsume, raising both hands, glad that the old war hawk was finally gone. Even Fugaku, Shibi, and Hiashi had tiny smiles on their faces.

"Well it seems that you are outnumbered. As such, Danzo will remain a civilian for now. Council dismissed!" Hiruzen said happily. No doubt the elders would try to propose that Danzo be brought back every time they held a meeting, but for now, Danzo was gone. And he had never been more relieved in his life. Well, maybe there had been other times.

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**Some of Sumire's past is uncovered! Please review! I hope this chapter isn't too rushed. Bye!**


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sumire went to school together. Fugaku kept eyeing them at the table. He still wasn't very happy with strangers living in his house. Who would be? Apparently Mikoto, Sasuke, and Itachi were.

"We're going now, kaa-chan!" Sasuke called.

"See you later!" Naruto followed.

"Thank you!" Sumire added in.

"Stay safe! " Mikoto advised.

The three children ran out of the door, laughing and talking. There friendship would only continue to grow as they grew older.

Sumire was currently laughing as Sasuke corrected Naruto's homework. They had gotten to the classroom early for once and Sasuke was shocked at how many mistakes Naruto made. They had went over this together, yesterday! Where had his brain gone?!

"Nine problems wrong?! For kami's sake, there's only fifteen total problems, how did you miss so many?! And after we went over it too!" Sasuke cried, shocked.

"I told you he was a baka. Baka Naruto, baka Naruto." Sumire teased as she laughed.

"Hey! I was hungry then! Don't blame me!" Naruto defended.

"Like that makes a difference. You can't possibly be hungry that much! You ate three helpings of dinner! That's more than me and Sumire put together!" Sasuke countered.

Shikamaru and Chouji entered the classroom and rolled their eyes. They were familiar with the routine. Scold Naruto until the teacher comes, Sit down, converse in Morse code during class, eat lunch, and then try to steal Sumire's scrolls. It was just that the first part of the schedule was the most attention grabbing. Personally, Shikamaru liked to talk in Morse. Iruka-sensei never knew why they laughed so much at the back, or why Shikamaru slept so much, but always caught the erasers he threw at him.

"Hey, did baka Naruto miss all the questions on his homework again?" Kiba asked, joining in with Akamaru on his head.

"No, but he did miss the majority. How'd you do dog boy?" Sumire asked Kiba. Normally, Kiba had around the same questions wrong as Naruto.

"Eight! Ha, better than Naruto!" Kiba taunted.

"But you did worse last time!" Naruto complained.

"You're just jealous!" Kiba said, sticking his nose up into the air.

"Am not!" Naruto screeched.

"Are too!"

Their screaming match was also a classic way to start off the day. But it didn't stop any of the girls from coddling Sumire. Since Sumire was only four, the majority of the class girls thought she was extremely cute. She was their personal, living dress up doll. They simply loved to pick flowers and put them in her hair or marvel at her dress. Sumire normally sat still for a while before latching onto Sakura or Ino and crying for help. Which the girls thought was absolutely adorable. Today was no different than usual. Swarms of girls crowded Sumire, trying to braid her hair or strecth her cheeks. The boys on the side laughed as she clung onto Ino for dear life.

"Alright settle DOWN!" Iruka ordered as he stepped into the classroom. The kids scrambled into their seats. Naruto by Sasuke, Shikamaru by Chouji, Kiba by Shino, Sakura by Ino, and Hinata by Sumire, all of them in the back of the classroom. Iruka frowned, how did the kyuubi container have so many friends? Didn't everyone hate him? Was he wrong about Naruto?

Shaking the thoughts out of his brain, he continued with the class. " Today we have a new student. Everyone, meet Sai." he introduced.

A black haired boy walked into the room awkwardly. He had a white shirt, black shorts and black ninja sandals. It was obvious that he wasn't used to so many people.

"Please tell Sai your names. Let's start in the front row, left to right." Iruka ordered. The students listed their, names some of them adding extra information, like Naruto. _He never could keep his mouth shut_, thought Iruka. Sai looked on impassively, trying to remember all of their names.

"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Iruka asked.

"Ohayo minna-san. I'm Sai and I have an older brother named Shin whose two grades above us. I hope we can be friends?" he finished hesitantly.

"Now class, if anyone has questions, please ask Sai. " Iruka said. " And raise your hands!" he added in for good measure.

Hands shot up throughout the classroom like lightning. It seemed that everyone had something to ask the new boy.

"Naruto?" Iruka chose, best get the demon container over with.

"What's your favorite food? Mine's ramen! Dattebayo!" Naruto asked and shouted at the same time.

"Umm. I like dango." Sai answered. He seemed unsure of himself, but Iruka put it off as nerves.

" What's your favorite color?" A girl with pigtails asked.

"Black."

The entire morning had turned into an interrogation session. Students shot questions at Sai without bothering to raise their hand. Now, it was all a huge jumbled mess with people shouting and running around. The entire back of the classroom was silent though, Iruka noted. Little did he know, they were having a highly entertaining time discussing Sai in Morse code. _Let them run free for a little longer,_ Iruka thought tiredly. He had barely gotten any sleep the previous night and Mizuki was out sick. What a horrible day for the new student to come.

_So do you think he wants to eat lunch with us? _Kiba tapped.

_Probably not with you dog boy. You're disgusting when you eat._ Naruto told him in Morse.

_Look at the pot calling the kettle black._ Sakura remarked. Even though she barely spent anytime with Naruto and his friends, they had made her open up a lot more and she voiced her opinions a lot as well.

_Sakura,_ the boys tapped simultaneously.

_She has a point. Have you seen yourself eat ramen?_ Sasuke asked.

_Dude, you eat way too much ramen. __I hope the new boy doesn't eat as much as you do._ Chouji remarked, before going back to munching on his chips.

_He has a name you know. It's Sai. Use it. And you eat a lot too. _Ino commanded.

_You think he'll play shoji with me? He seems smart._ Shikamaru wondered.

_I still have to beat you another five times! Is all you think about shoji?_ Sumire asked him.

_You should get used to him, Sumire. Shoji, sleep and clouds are all he thinks about._ Ino advised.

_Well he is very nice. Just a bit slow when he's doing things. He'll get faster one day._ Hinata complimented.

_Hinata, I think you have your hopes too high. Shikamaru will stay lazy for the entirety of his life._ Sasuke remarked.

_I agree. That is because Shikamaru shows no want of changing._ Shino agreed.

_Oh god. I forgot you were still sitting next to me! You should talk more._ Kiba exclaimed.

_Yeah Shino. You're so quiet. _Naruto commented.

_And you are much too loud. _Shino told Naruto.

_He has a point Naruto. Sometimes, you are plain annoying. _Sakura tapped.

_Sakura. _Naruto whined.

_You shouldn't be so mean to Naruto. _Hinata scolded, trying to keep her face as cool as possible.

_Hinata, are you alright? You're all red and hot. Do you have a fever?_ Sumire asked, concerned for her friend. It seemed that she was just as hopeless as Naruto when it came to love.

_She's alright Sumire. Just give her a while. _Sasuke smirked.

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by the bell, signaling lunch.

"Finally! I'm starving! And my finger feels like it's going to fall off!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's why I use a pencil to tap." Sasuke told him.

"Alright class! Single file line! We're starting history after lunch!" Iruka called after them as they left. Kids were such a handful.

The clan heirs settled in their much used spot. Underneath a tree at the edge of the Academy away from prying eyes. Naruto sat on the swing eating the lunch the school provided, Sasuke sitting under him. The two bantered on and on about anything they could think of including ramen, the Hokages, and tomatoes. Sumire, Ino, Sakura, and Hinata sat in a circle talking and laughing nearby as Kiba stood next to the tree talking and eating with Akamaru. Shino stood stoically on the side eating sushi. Shikamaru and Chouji were outside in the sun eating lunch and watching clouds lazily float by. A perfectly normal school day. At least until the new kid went over, looking for company.

They were all eating lunch happily when Sai walked over to there lunch area.

"Excuse me?" Sai asked.

There was no reply. The kids who sat there were still talking.

"Excuse me!" Sai repeated, louder this time. These kids were so loud. Shin and he were never that loud. Danzo-sama had taught them how to stay could they ever hope to succeed as shinobi if they were so loud?

Suddenly, twenty pairs of eyes stared at him, unblinking.

"Can I sit here?" he asked, suddenly very nervous. Making friends and reading about it in a book were very different. However he was sure that Shin would have no trouble, Shin was naturally friendly. He was not.

"Sure. I'm Naruto! And I'm going to be the best ninja ever!Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered.

"Doesn't that mean you would be Hokage?" Sai asked.

"Yeah! And Sasuke will be my adviser!" he proclaimed.

"Don't mind Naruto, come sit with us." Ino offered. Sai nodded and took a spot near the boy with glasses. His name was Shino, Sai remembered. His clan was the Aburame, why did that sound so familiar?

"You're from Root, aren't you?" Shino asked him quietly, after the other kids had resumed their normal lunches.

"How'd you know?!" he asked, no one was supposed to know.

"My cousin, Fu, was in Root as well. Perhaps you have heard of him? You look just like him when there's a lot of people. Fu said you had been isolated, that's because shinobi are trained to be emotionless. Fu came back two days ago, probably just like you. Correct?"

"Yes. That is correct." Sai answered.

"If you want tips on making friends, just ask Naruto! That's the most I've ever seen Shino talk! What were you talking about, insects?" Kiba advised. Sai remembered him because he had the white puppy with him all the time.

"Yes, a certain type of butterflies." Shino answered. That's when Sai noticed the bugs in Shino's lunch.

"Um, Shino-kun?" Sai asked.

Shino looked at him expectantly.

"There are bugs in your bento. I thought you should know." Sai told him. The book on friend said you should always try to help your friends.

"They are always there. That's because Aburame work with these bugs." Shino said, not caring to elaborate.

"Shino's just weird that way. Don't let it bother you." A blond girl told him.

"What was your name again?" he asked. He couldn't keep everyone's names straight. There were too many people.

"Ino. Remember it. The pink haired girl here is Sakura." she introduced.

" Hey, how about you try naming us all, it'll help you get better with names." Sasuke offered.

"I will try. Shino, Kiba, Ino, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Chouji, Shikamaru, Sumire and Hinata. " Sai said, pointing each of them out after he called their names.

"S-sai- kun, y-you g-g-got me and S-sumire mixed u-up." The pale- eyed girl said.

"Gomen. I'm not used to so many people." Sai explained.

"So where do you live? I haven't seen you at the shinobi orphanage before." Naruto commented.

"I-uh, um-" Sai didn't know what to say. The Hokage had told him he could tell whoever he wanted, but he wasn't sure they'd appreciate him if he told them. He still stayed at the house he used in Root.

_Bring!Briing!_ The bell rang, saving Sai. The kids packed up they're lunches and raced back to the classroom. Well, not Shikamaru and Chouji. The two of them lagged behind, walking at a slow pace.

When everyone was back in the classroom, Iruka started teaching again after placing Sai near a girl with purple hair named Akane.

"Now the Shodaime was Senju Hashirama. Can anyone tell me who the Nidaime was?" Iruka asked. They had covered this on Wednesday and Thursday. If they were paying attention and not sleeping or playing pranks(Naruto) they should be able to answer. He scanned the room noting that Shikamaru was sleeping and the child prodigy, Sumire, had here head buried in a book. Probably a picture book. Little did he know, it was on the art of sealing. He scowled. Why couldn't those two to pay attention?

Taking two erasers from the blackboard, he threw one at each of them. Shikamaru rolled his head to the other side and neatly dodged the eraser while Sumire simply lifted her book and blocked it. He knew it wouldn't work, it never did. How the Nara kid dodged in his sleep, Iruka would never know.

"Chouji, wake up Shikamaru. Sumire, answer the question." he commanded.

" The Nidaime was Senju Tobirama. He had an extremely powerful water release and created the Uchiha police force. He was also the younger brother of Senju Hashirama, our Shodaime." she said. It was the perfect textbook answer, except it was from the wrong textbook. That was the second year textbook, Iruka noticed. And she was also the great granddaughter of the first Hokage, he should have known better than to question her on her heritage.

"Shikamaru, who was the head of the Uchiha at that time?" he asked as he listed the Hokage on the board.

"Um, Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru fell asleep again." Chouji told him. Iruka banged his head on the blackboard. Why was he even doing this job? Oh right, because the Hokage asked him to. He didn't notice Naruto flick something toward his chair before sitting back down. While Naruto was doing that, Kiba lunged for Sumire's book, but ended up on the ground when he tripped on his shoelaces.

"Alright, never mind that. Let's-" Iruka continued, but when he sat down, something pricked him, hard.

"Yeoh!" He screamed, springing up, out of his chair. When he looked back down, there was a thumbtack on his chair and the entire class was laughing at him. Even Shikamaru was awake. He groaned again. Those kids were driving him crazy!

* * *

**So is it alright? Please review. Next chapter, graduation. I think. I'm going to slow down on the updates a little. I can't post a chapter tomorrow, I'll be on vacation, probably. But if something goes wrong and I stay home, I might be able to post another chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Just to clarify, Sumire will not be extremely overpowered. She doesn't have anyone to teach her jutsu yet, so she's around the power of Sasuke just with a lot more chakra.**

* * *

**Four years later**

It was the day before the graduation exams and the clan heirs along with Sai and Sakura were all studying their butts off, all except, you guessed it, Naruto. He was currently slurping down ramen as fast as he could for an afternoon "snack". They were all in a study session that Ino had created years earlier. She had gotten the idea from the shinobi orphanage classes and decided to form a study group with all of them. They told her it was a wonderful idea, and went along. They met before all the test, exams, and quizzes to study, and if there weren't any of those, they met every Wednesday at the park. Usually, they studied for two or three hours, until going home for dinner. Chouji once suggested they go to a training ground, but sadly those were only open to genin and above. Right now, they were studying for the graduation exams.

"Naruto, if you don't study, you'll fail again!" Sakura told him. Naruto had tried to take the mock exams earlier in the year, but he had failed every single one of them.

"No I won't, don't be so nervous. The only thing I can't do is Bunshin no jutsu, so it's fine. I bet they won't even test us on that." he said confidently.

"N-naruto, I think you should study with us." Hinata advised. Spending years of time with the rowdy group had pretty much taken away her fainting and stuttering habits, except when she said "Naruto".

"Naruto! Get over here!" Ino screeched. Unlike Hinata, years of spending time with the group had not lowered her voice, and Naruto and Kiba's loudness didn't help.

Naruto continued to ignore them. Sasuke sighed, he was never going to become genin.

"Fishcake. I think you should study." Sai followed after the girls, hoping that Naruto would listen to him.

"You'll never make Hokage if you can't even make genin!" Kiba taunted.

"Yes I will!" Naruto retorted, forgetting his ramen for an instant.

"No you won't. You can't be the Hokage if you're not even a genin." Kiba told him smugly.

"Well then, I'll pass the graduation exams!" he declared.

"How? How are you going to do that. To pass, you can only get a failing grade in one area. The rest of us can pass. Sasuke and Sai, will probably pass with the highest scores in total for the boys, and Hinata the highest scores in the girls. I doubt they'll fail anything. Shino, Sakura, Ino and I are next up. We might fail in the Taijutsu portion, but our other skills will cover it up. Chouji and Shikamaru, on the other hand will just barely scrape by the academics. Chouji because he just isn't cut out for that kind of stuff, and Shikamaru because he's too lazy to try and do better. Kiba will most likely fail the Academics, but he'll do well on the other subjects. But you? You'll fail the Academics, Genjutsu, and probably, the Ninjutsu. That's three areas in a total of five! The only two things you're alright at are taijutsu and stealth. Unlike the rest of us, you can't sense a genjutsu, or break it. Bottom line is, you'll fail if you don't start studying big time! You're lucky we impressed the teachers last week with that fancy kunai trick, otherwise you would have to take the weapons test as well. "' Sumire said, pointing out each of their weaknesses.

She was no longer the polite, timid, little girl she once was. She was fierce and protective of her friends, but she was still polite. They had all grown up. And Naruto no longer wore a orange jumpsuit like he did at the beginning of the Academy, but he still played pranks, not even Iruka could stop him from doing that.

"Well then, fine! Teach me how to break out of a genjutsu!" he relented. They smiled. Finally!

"Well, if you notice tiny things that aren't right, like an extra eraser or an open window that wasn't there at first, you know you're in a genjutsu. To break out of one, you just have to stop the chakra flow in your body. We learnt this all in class, maybe if you and Kiba weren't so busy pulling pranks, then you would have known." Ino said.

"Hey! My pranks are pretty cool! Everyone laughs at them!" Naruto protested.

"Actually, Naruto, I know a different way for you to break out of a genjutsu. It's easier for you to do it this way because of your huge chakra capacity. Just force all of the chakra in your body out with one big push. It works for me." Sumire told him.

"You sure? How would that work? It's the complete opposite of Ino's way." Naruto said suspiciously.

"It disrupts the chakra that the genjutsu user sends to your brain." Sasuke said. He understood how it works, after all, it was the only way he could break out of one of his aniki's genjutsus and they were the simplest his aniki could use.

"Right. That makes sense. Here goes! Kai!" Naruto commanded, sending off a wave of chakra from his body. The wave was so strong that the ANBU assigned to protect Naruto jumped down to investigate what happened. Seeing that it was nothing, they sighed and left. It happened often, every time Naruto screamed, or got angry and let out chakra, they had to jump out and make sure nothing went wrong. Nothing ever was.

"Perfect! That will break you out of any genjutsu the instructors can come up with. Just look for small details, they always purposely leave something as a clue and remember that you only have five minutes to break out of the Genjutsu." Sakura reminded him. Sumire nodded along.

"Now as for the clone jutsu, I have no idea what you should do." Ino said, lamely. Truth to be told, she didn't know why he couldn't do it. All the heads turned to Sumire. She was the only one there that had a chakra capacity anywhere close to Naruto's.

"I don't know, don't look at me! Naruto's control isn't good enough for a Bunshin no jutsu. Besides, I don't have as much chakra as him. I can't fix it in an hour. I'd need days! Or months to fix it to a reasonable level." Sumire told them helplessly.

"Well then, if you can't do a clone jutsu, too bad. You'll just have to fail Ninjutsu and we'll have to pound the Academy history lessons into your head!" Kiba announced, grinning widely and Akamaru yipped beside him. The small whit puppy hadn't gotten much bigger and was sitting on Kiba's head.

"That won't work. That's because Naruto is a baka." Shino said with a small rising of his mouth underneath his coat.

"I agree, we must think of a way to teach it so that Naruto can't forget it. Textbooks won't help." Sai commented.

" So a song?" Ino asked.

"No, Naruto would never remember a song." Sasuke vetoed.

" A poem?" Sakura suggested.

"No way Naruto would ever remember a poem." Chouji commented while munching on his chips. Shikamaru slept beside him, facing the sky.

"Why can't Naruto just get a better brain?! The history lessons have been the same since the second year at the Academy!" Sumire exclaimed.

"Hey! Hey! Naruto's right here you know! Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Naruto exclaimed.

The children ignored him, preferring instead to argue among themselves. Naruto pouted before going back to eating his ramen.

Half an hour later, they still hadn't reached an agreement. Finally, Shikamaru decided to comment.

"Troublesome. Sumire aren't you supposed to be smart? Just ask those ANBU that follow Naruto everywhere to teach him a clone jutsu that requires more chakra... Troublesome." Shikamaru yawned. Sumire's eyes widened and Shino's eyebrow raised. _Why didn't they think of that earlier?_

"Hey Naruto!" Kiba called. Looking up from his ramen, Naruto gave them a _what _look. He was busy eating ramen here!

"Stop eating and let out a burst of chakra." Sasuke commanded. Shrugging, Naruto listened and did just want Sasuke said. A second later, the ANBU arrived a little ways away from them, just like Shikamaru predicted.

"ANBU-sama!" Sakura called. They ANBU headed towards them cautiously.

"What do you want?" the leader asked. He had a mask shaped like a tiger.

"Ano, Tora-sama, could you help Naruto?" Sai asked, politely.

"What is it, gaki?" the ANBU asked Naruto.

"He wants you to teach him another type of Bunshin no jutsu that requires more chakra." Sasuke answered for him.

"..." the ANBU remained silent for a while as the children waited for his response in anticipation. Even Naruto had put down his ramen and was silently begging the ANBU to teach him. One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds, ...

"... Alright, just this once. What I'm going to teach you is the Kage Bunshin no jutsu." the ANBU told him.

"Taichou!" One of the other ANBU with a cat mask protested.

"Don't worry, he has enough chakra." the captain assured her.

"So how do you do it? Teach it to me!" Naruto shouted happily. He was sure that this was a really cool jutsu!

"This jutsu creates solid clones that can move and talk. Watch carefully." the ANBU commanded. He put his hand together in a ram seal and out popped five copies of him. Naruto walked up and tried to poke one, which swatted his hand out of the way.

"Sugoi! How'd you do it?" he asked excitedly.

" Form the ram seal and push chakra out. Depending on how much chakra you use, you can produce different amounts of clones." the ANBU told him.

"Alright! I'll perfect this technique by tomorrow! That's a promise!" Naruto swore.

Under his mask, the ANBU stifled a chuckle. Like that was possible. No one could master the Kage Bunshin no jutsu in a day. That was just plain ridiculous. Unfortunately, he had forgotten one rule regarding Naruto, Never bet against him.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto shouted, crossing his fingers just like the ANBU. His first try was pathetic. Three, half-dead, colored clones, slumped on the floor.

"Hey, at least he's better at this than the Bunshin no jutsu! The clones actually have colors!" Kiba remarked.

" I guess, but he can't pass like that." Chouji said worriedly.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru remarked.

" Don't worry, he'll be fine." Ino said, although the look on her face proved otherwise.

"Right. Let's go back to studying." Sumire commanded.

The ANBU stood nearby as Naruto tried to master the Kage Bunshin no jutsu. When night fell, Naruto was still practicing, even though everyone else had left to go home.

"Naruto, dinner's ready!" Sumire called. The two of them had started living together after the Hokage gave them an apartment in one of the less busy districts of Konoha.

**Flashback start**

**"**Old man! What'd you call us here for?" Naruto asked as he and Sumire entered the room. They were both still very short and Naruto's head barely reached the bottom of the Hokage's desk. He was only eight and being naturally short didn't help. Sumire was already up to his shoulder and she was only five!

"Naruto, give the Hokage some respect! Gomen, Hokage-sama. " Sumire chided, swatting Naruto on his arm.

"No worries, it's fine. Happy birthday Naruto! I've called you here to give you a birthday present." the Hokage declared.

"So why did you call Sumire here?" he asked confused, Sumire's birthday had already passed. It was on March ninth, to be exact.

"Well, for you're birthday you're getting an apartment! Since you two are friends, I thought you might want to live together. After all, Sumire doesn't know any one else in the orphanage, but you." the Hokage said., giving Naruto the keys to his new home. He was obviously trying to set them up, but neither one of them noticed. They were both too innocent like little angels.

"Wow! Arigatou old man! I'm so happy! Dattebayo!" Naruto crowed.

"Wait, I have to live with Naruto?!" Sumire asked in disbelief.

"Yes or you can stay at the orphanage." The Hokage offered.

"I guess I'll... stay with Naruto. We can still visit the orphanage right?" Sumire asked.

"Of course, any time you wish. We have a shortage of jounin and chunin who are suited to work at the orphanage, so some of the other kids will also be moving out." Hiruzen explained. Sumire nodded. That made sense. For the past year or so, only two chunin, Raido-san and Iwashi-san, had taken care of them in shifts. She had also noticed that some of the older children, those who were almost at the age of graduation were leaving.

"Now Naruto, I have another birthday gift for you." Hiruzen said, turning his attention to Naruto.

"What? What is it?" he asked eagerly.

"It's a scroll on elemental jutsu. I expect you to read it. Don't just give it to Sumire to read and ask her to summarize it for you." the Hokage told him in a joking tone.

"Ok! I'll get this down in no time! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered. Sumire rolled her eyes, Naruto learned by doing, not reading. She doubted he would be able to understand any of it.

"Now I'll take you two to your new apartment if you're done jumping around, Naruto." the Hokage smiled. Sumire immediately ran over and pulled Naruto to the Hokage. She wanted to see where she would be living.

They disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves as the ANBU in the shadows sweat dropped. _He's still not done with his paperwork! _the ANBU thought.

When they arrived, Naruto couldn't help but feel disappointed. The building was rundown and the paint was peeling off in several places. The door's hinges were rusted and graffiti covered the walls. Noticing his sadness, the Hokage spoke up.

"Don't worry, you can patch it up later. You'll be receiving a monthly stipend from me and you too, Sumire. Spend it wisely. You should have enough money to repair this a little bit." he said, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulders.

"Well, what are you waiting for, open the door." Sumire said excitedly. Naruto inserted the key, and _click!_, the door creaked open. Inside there was a small table in the dining room and a kitchen. The walls were stark white like those of a hospital. Cracks ran through the sides like the web of a spider. Going in further, they found a bathroom, and two smaller bedrooms.

"We are going to need to add a little color to this place." Sumire observed. The whole house reminded her of a hospital.

"Paint balls!" Naruto screamed.

"No way! " Sumire argued. She was not going to have a multicolored room. Where was Naruto's fashion sense? Which reminded her, she would have to get him new clothes soon, the orange jumpsuit he had was horrible!

"I'll leave you two here to look around. The money's on the table." Hiruzen told them, his eyes crinkling into a smile. Youngsters were so energetic these days.

"Blue!" Sumire argued.

"Orange!" Naruto pouted.

Hiruzen left unnoticed as the two duked it out. It was the epic battle of Blue vs. Orange. In the end, the two agreed to a compromise. Naruto's room would be orange, Sumire's room would be blue, the dining room would be a light green and the kitchen would be a warm yellow color. But as for the bathroom, they would leave it white, for now. Smiling happily, Sumire and Naruto ate ramen for dinner, completely ignoring the festival outside. Well, at least Naruto was ignoring the sounds of laughter and talking.

"Why don't you go to the festival? I want to go. It sounds so fun." She said wistfully.

"The people don't like me. They keep looking at me like I'm some kind of monster." Naruto explained.

"Why?" Sumire asked, her face scrunched up in thought. Naruto was loud and liked to prank people, but that didn't mean that everyone had to hate him.

"I honestly don't know. Sometimes, I think Iruka-sensei looks at me like that, but I must be wrong. He can't be like them, none of the shinobi judge me, so he shouldn't either." Naruto answered, sadly.

"Well, I think you're nice. And I'm sure Sasuke, and Shikamaru, and Chouji, and Kiba, and Ino, and Sakura, and Hinata, and Shino all think so too." she told him confidently.

"Of course they do! I'm awesome! Sugoi!" Naruto beamed.

"How about we watch the fireworks from the window later? We might even see some of our friends!" Sumire offered.

"Good idea!" Naruto agreed.

Later that night, they watched as streaks of lights burst into a thousand drops and vanished. Blue, red, whit, gold, green, it was all there. They watched in awe as fireworks shaped like foxes and the fourth Hokage lit up the night sky and shined brighter than the stars.

**Flashback end**

"One more time! I almost got it down!" Naruto called back. Sumire sighed in exasperation, he was never going to finish at this rate.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto commanded. Copies of living, breathing Narutos popped up on the playground.

"I did it! I told you I could! Dattebayo!" Naruto gloated. In the trees, the masked ANBUs nearly fell off of the branch. One thought ran through all of their minds, _He actually did it!_

"Great! Now you'll pass the exam tomorrow no problem at all!" Sumire smiled. She was so proud of her surrogate aniki. He had mastered two elemental jutsu and finally perfected a variation of the Bunshin no Jutsu!

"So what's for dinner?" Naruto asked as the clones dispelled into clouds of smoke.

"Soup, fish, and rice. And go take a bath!" Sumire answered, pinching her nose. Naruto got sweaty too much, too often.

"Aww, no ramen?" Naruto pouted.

"No! Go take a bath!" Sumire repeated, more forcefully this time.


	10. Chapter 10

**Graduation**

Naruto was excited. Jumping around in excitement in fact. He was going to pass the exams this time! He just knew it!Then he could become the Hokage. Naruto drifted into dreamland, a smile on his face.

"Naruto! NARUTO!" Ino shouted, waving a perfectly manicured hand in front of Naruto's face.

"Eh?! What is it?" he asked.

"Did you master that clone technique?" she asked, curious.

"Yeah! It's awesome!" he cheered.

"I think Naruto might actually pass this time." Sasuke commented from the side.

"Sure, and Akamaru will fly." Kiba snickered.

Shikamaru dozed off in a nearby desk as Sumire tried to wake him up. Apparently, that was more interesting than talking to Naruto.

"Who's the Shodaime?" Sakura quizzed Hinata.

"Senju Hashirama. That's too easy Sakura. Everyone knows the order of the Hokages and their skills." Hinata answered.

"I bet fishcake doesn't." Sai laughed.

"I can too!" Naruto protested.

"Do it." Shino commanded, knowing just as well as everyone else that he couldn't do it.

"Ano, Let's see, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, Namikaze Minato-" he began.

"Wrong!" Sumire cut him off, after unsuccessfully trying to wake Shikamaru up.

"Naruto, it's Sarutobi Hiruzen then Namikaze Minato." Chouji corrected as he munched on his chips.

"Darn it! I forgot again!" Naruto moaned.

"Class, settle down! It's the day of the exams!" Iruka called. He had been much more kind to Naruto after he managed to weasel into Iruka's heart. Somehow, Naruto could do that to everyone.

"Shikamaru! Wake up!" Iruka called as he halfheartedly threw an eraser at Shikamaru's head. He had learned that no matter how he threw the eraser, Shikamaru refused to get hit.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru yawned as he caught the eraser and threw it back to Iruka. Mizuki, who was nearby frowned, such blatant disrespect was well, disrespectful.

"Now, we will proceed with the tests. Everyone, sit down!" the last comment was directed to Naruto who was so excited that he refused to sit down.

"Mizuki, please pass out the tests." Iruka commanded.

Mizuki scurried over to the table and began to pass the tests out. When he got to Naruto, he performed a slight genjutsu to vary the questions, but keep the answer choices the same. He smiled. That should keep Naruto from passing. He picked up his pace as he dropped test booklets on everyone's desks.

"Alright does everyone have a test?" Iruka asked when Mizuki made it back to the front of the classroom. A chorus of "yes" met his question.

"Then, the test begins! Remember you have an hour to do the questions." Iruka reminded them. Standing in the back, Mizuki smiled discreetly, now he was going to get that scroll!

Naruto looked at the list of questions on is test. There was so many it seemed. In reality, there were only twenty. _Alright, first question,_ he thought. _Who was the Shodaime Hokage? That's easy, Senju Hashirama. _

_Who was the Sandaime? Oh who was it again? Umm, Umm, Namikaze Naruto. The Hokage right now is the fourth. _

And like that, he continued down the lists of questions. Some he got right, others he got wrong. Some of the ones he missed were the original questions, others were genjutsu- covered ones. Unfortunately for Mizuki, the answers that Naruto got wrong were the correct answers to the original questions. Too bad Mizuki doubted Naruto's luck. He didn't think Naruto could possibly miss all of his genjutsu covered questions and get the original ones correct.

An hour later, the bell chimed, just as Naruto put down his pencil. He knew he didn't do too well, but he would just have to wing it! He was never suited for books and paper tests. Iruka picked up Naruto's paper and raised an eyebrow, some of the questions were actually answered correctly! Naruto might actually pass this exam!

After putting the papers in a neat pile, Iruka led the kids outside. Time for the Taijutsu portion.

"Alright, each of you will fight Mizuki. You will fight each other. Mizuki will not fight to the fullest as we do not want any of you to be hurt. You are measured on how long you can stay in the ring, whoever can stay longest will receive thirty two points. Anyone with below ten points is considered to have failed this portion. No ninjutsu or genjutsu is allowed. Any questions?" Iruka asked. No one raised their hands.

"First up is Aburame Shino. Give me a second. " Iruka announced before going back into the classroom and taking out a clipboard, a piece of paper, a timer, and a pencil. Somebody had to right the times down, after all. Shino kicked and punched, dodging Mizuki's pulled back punches. He used the classic academy style, predictable and weak. Needless to say, he was out rather quickly.

Iruka pressed the stop button on the timer as soon as Shino was thrown out, four minutes and thirty eight seconds, not bad for a clan that specialized in long range attacks.

The students went in one by one, most of them not lasting for more than two or three minutes at the most. There was an obvious advantage for being raised in a clan. Sasuke and Sai, as well as Kiba and Naruto were the highest scores in the boys seconds, Sasuke staying in the longest, ten minutes and thirteen seconds, using his clan's special style of taijutsu as well as his now fully matured sharingan. Sai was second best, tied with Kiba, they each stayed in exactly nine minutes. Maybe they were over by a few milliseconds, but Iruka didn't count that. Naruto stayed in incredibly long, considering the fact that Mizuki barely pulled any of his punches. He ducked and dodged and leaped and jumped, staying in the ring of a grand total of six minutes and twenty three seconds. Chouji stayed in mostly because of his weight, Mizuki's soft punches barely even hurt him at all. He stayed in just a little shorter than Shino, four minutes and twenty six seconds. If he hadn't been so busy eating, perhaps he would've stayed in longer. And of course, there was the ever lazy Shikamaru. He stayed in for the bare minimum amount of time, he estimated was considered a pass, exactly four minutes.

On the girls side, Hinata dominated the competition. Using her clans gentle fist and using her natural flexibility, she stayed in for a total of eight minutes and fifty four seconds, earning her fourth place in the entire class. The other girls were not so lucky, Ino and Sakura were probably best off. They had trained in taijutsu, knowing it was their weak spot. Too bad for them, it wasn't quite enough. Both of them only stayed for about half of Hinata's time, four minutes and twenty three seconds. Sumire, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. She was short and hadn't been very well conditioned in taijutsu because of her age. She had only learnt half the academy moves and against a chunin, even a very weak and pulled back one, it was not useful. She only lasted two minutes and ten seconds because of her natural quickness, and somewhat toned dodging skills. She was the only one in the entire class that didn't manage to hurt Mizuki.

"Alright, that's the end of that portion. Now take a little break and we're onto the stealth portion. This time, it's a little different, we're mixing it up with the genjutsu portion." Iruka announced. The kids groaned, that would make it so much harder to pass. After a few minutes, Iruka led them to the edge of the forest near the Academy.

"Everyone, your test will be taken in here. You will be going in groups of three or four. You must stay in the forest and not get caught by the chunin there for ten minutes. Along the way, there will be genjutsu traps, and you'll have to get out of them. There is no ninjutsu allowed or any taijutsu, but you can use chakra. A red flare will shoot up when the ten minutes are over. Does everyone understand? You can get into groups now." Iruka instructed.

The clan heirs and their friends all made a beeline to Naruto, Sasuke or Kiba. They were in charge of the pranks that most chunins couldn't avoid. Many of Sasuke's fan girls also tried to get paired up with Sasuke, however, Sakura and Ino drove them off. They had small crushes on Sasuke, just a little, but they didn't let it show. If one of them chased Sasuke, the other would too and they didn't want to lose their friendship over a boy. In the end, Naruto was paired up with Sai, Ino and Sumire, Sasuke was paired up with Sakura and Shino, and Kiba had Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji on his team. They weren't perfect, but it was the best that they could do in five minutes.

" Alright, each of you will be given a team number." Iruka told them, holing out stickers. He went along the line and passed out the stickers.

Since all of their teams were near the end of the line, they were stuck waiting for the other teams to come out. Several of the teams before them hadn't passed and were thrown out earlier than the ten minute mark. Everyone was nervous in anticipation, the tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Finally, Iruka called up Naruto's team.

"Team seven, you're up!" he announced, giving Naruto a thumbs up and a reassuring smile. Naruto responded in kind, giving Iruka a hug before racing off to join his teammates.

They ran into the forest, immediately jumping onto the nearest tree.

"Be quiet and discreet." Sai warned them.

"I'll scout ahead. I can disable and sense the traps and if Sumire did it, she'd let off too much chakra." Ino volunteered. Her teammates nodded, Ino was the best choice.

" Yes, that's a good plan. Sai will be after you, Naruto after Sai and me at the end. That way Sai can dispel any genjutsu you miss, Naruto can look out for danger and I can keep the back safe and get myself out of any genjutsu. We can't risk Naruto in a genjutsu, he's our eyes and ears and I hate to admit it, but he's also our brain." Sumire planned out.

"Alright, then let's get into formation." Naruto agreed.

Several times, they had close calls. Once, both Ino and Sai missed the tell tale signs of a genjutsu. In the end, it had been Naruto who noticed it. How you ask? It was the same design as one of the genjutsu Kurenai had used during their shinobi classes. Of course, he also let out a flare of chakra. When the genjutsu dispelled, Naruto grabbed them and ran up the side of the tree into the leaves. The chunin who were proctoring the exams expected for them to either still be there or have ran away, they completely forgot to look above. When the area was cleared, they cautiously, skidded back down and left quietly. A minute later, one of the chunins saw a flash of dark blue from Sumire's skirt. The group held their breath as the chunin squinted and looked more closely. Finally he shook his head and passed it off as a blue bird. Sumire blushed as her teammates glared at her for almost giving them away. Later as they snuck through the dense canopy, the red flare shot up.

" Is it a genjutsu?" Sumire asked.

Ino frowned, it seemed like ten minutes, but Sumire could be right. Only one way to find out. Forming a triangle with a her fingers, Ino tried to dispel the jutsu, but the red flare was still shooting up.

" I guess it's real then." Sai remarked, starting to jump down. Suddenly, Naruto's arm shot out and grabbed him.

"That's a genjutsu, I know it is. The red flare that Iruka brought doesn't look like that when it's shot off. It's wider and goes lower. I used them once for my pranks as an activation signal to blow the roof and window of the Academy off. Someone used a double layered genjutsu." he explained.

"Kai!" Ino tried again, this time the flare disappeared.

"How did you know which type of flare Iruka brought?" Sumire asked curiously.

"Remember that time, I was late getting home? Well, Iruka-sensei asked me which one of the flares was most noticeable. He said it was a surprise for the class. I didn't know he meant for a test." Naruto explained.

"Oh so that's why. Makes sense." Sumire nodded.

After another two minutes or so, the real red flare shot up. This time Naruto didn't need to confirm it. It was obvious that was the flare, it was bright red, and relatively low, so that the kids waiting in line couldn't see it. The group headed out of the forest, happy that they passed.

They stood in line as Sasuke and Kiba's groups passed the test. Naruto was smiling so widely, that his cheeks ached, but he couldn't stop. He would actually pass the test!

On the side of the clearing, Mizuki was worried. The tests had been graded, and Naruto had just barely got the passing score, a seventy percent. Even if  
Naruto failed the next test, he would still pass. This was bad. It seemed, he would have to steal the forbidden jutsu scroll himself.

"Next up is the ninjutsu test. Please line up. You will each perform one jutsu you learned outside of class and then do the Bunshin no jutsu. You must perform both to pass. You must also produce five clones." Iruka announced when they got back into the classroom.

Naruto smiled internally, there was no way he wasn't going to pass this test. The students went in and performed their jutsu. Many of the civilian children were at a severe disadvantage, there was no one to teach them any jutsu. Thus, most of them failed. Naruto was the first to go out of his group of friends. Taking a deep breath he performed a winds jutsu.

"Fuuton: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto yelled as he finished the hand signs. A large gust of wind came from his mouth and blew a hole in the wall. Iruka sighed, leave it to Naruto to use the most destructive technique. He would have to repair the wall later.

"That's fine, now how about a Bunshin no Jutsu?" Iruka asked, hoping that Naruto had practiced.

"Er, Can it be a variation?" Naruto asked.

"I suppose so."

"Alright! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto commanded. As soon as the name was spoken, twenty clones appeared in the room, some hanging on the ceiling and others standing on the tables.

Iruka felt his eyes widen. _ Holy crap, just how much chakra did this kid have? _ he wondered.

"So did I pass?" Naruto asked his eyes shining.

"Yes. Here you go." Iruka said, handing Naruto a shiny forehead protector.

"Yes! I did it! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, jumping as he pumped his fist in the air.

Following Naruto, the rest of the group performed their jutsu. All of them created perfect clones as well as did their own techniques. Sasuke did the traditional Katon: Great Fireball through the hole in the wall Naruto created, Shino made a bug clone, and Kiba created another hole in the wall as he used fang over fang with Akamaru nearly falling out of the hole he created. Sai used his painting ninjutsu, Beast imitation to create small rats that bounded out of the paper, scaring most of the girls. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji used their family's traditional techniques. Sakura and Hinata both used the Shadow shuriken no jutsu. Sakura used it because it was the only other jutsu she learned and Hinata used it because she couldn't learn any other jutsu. Sumire, like Sasuke and Naruto, used an elemental jutsu, Suiton: Hidden mist technique. The entire room was covered in fog when she was finished and took several minutes to clear up.

Truth to be told, the entire group had mastered their element manipulation, but they didn't know any jutsu that corresponded to their affinity. It was mostly because the clan heads had been unwilling to teach them any preferring to teach them the traditional clan techniques first and Naruto's scroll only had fuuton techniques on it. And because even though the ANBU were willing to help them master their affinities, they refused to teach them any jutsu, claiming that it would be too dangerous. Enough said about that, let's get back to the graduation.

They had all earned their headbands and were officially shinobi of Konoha. They couldn't be any happier. Cheering, they congratulated each other and waited for their parents to come. Well, in Naruto, Sumire, and Sai's case, they just waited for the other kids to leave. Mizuki, on the other hand was seething in anger, _that demon brat passed! With a high score as well! _he thought. He would just have to steal the scroll himself. With everyone celebrating, no one noticed as Mizuki snuck away to prepare to get the scroll.

* * *

**Done with the Graduation! Naruto passed! Hooray! I hope my grammar's alright, this chapter was a little rushed. I'll be updating slower now, I think. And now the chapters have been edited, but I probably still missed stuff. II'll have another chapter done by tomorrow! Please review! Bye!**


	11. Chapter 11

Hinata gazed out of her window as she fingered her shinobi headband. She just couldn't sleep, she was too excited for tomorrow. She hoped she was in Naruto's team. The stars glittered brightly, millions in the sky like little lights in the infinite darkness. So many. They could grant her wishes, her mother once told her.

How she wished she could make her father proud. She wished that she could be just as talented as her cousin, Neji. She wished that her father would gaze at her with the same prideful eyes he had when he saw her imoutou, Hanabi. She wished she wasn't so shy and powerless and be more like Naruto. She wished she wasn't herself. She wanted to see those proud eyes on her one more time.

Last time her father looked at her like that was when she had orchestrated a plan to get rid of the throwing weapons part of the graduation exam. She just wanted her father to be proud of her one more time.

**Flashback start**

"Class, I've got good news!" Iruka-sensei cheered as he walked into the room.

The class immediately shut up. The graduation exam was only a week away. If it was good news, it had to be about the exam. Maybe they wouldn't have to take it.

"The Sandaime has declared that if this year's class can choose a representative team of five, and the team does a well enough demonstration, you won't have to take the throwing weapons part of the exams."Iruka-sensei announced.

"What demonstration?"

"Representatives?!"

"Yeah~!"

"Settle DOWN! A group of five will put on a show! To be exact, a weapons show. You must prove to the Sandaime, that the class can indeed pass the test. I've selected five people who have the greatest chance. Please come up here once I call your name." Iruka-sensei informed the class. They listen with full attention as Iruka read the names.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke got up and shot a smug grin to Naruto before going to the front of the classroom.

"Sai." Excusing himself, Sai went to the front and joined Sasuke.

"Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata's head shot up as her name was called. She couldn't believe it! Iruka actually chose her. Sure, her weapons skills were the best in the girls, but she was to shy. Sumire gave her a little push and a smile. Stumbling, Hinata ran to the front of the classroom, her face beet red. She still hadn't gotten over her stage fright.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto jumped up, pumping his fist into the air and sprinting to take a spot near Sasuke.

"Inuzuka Kiba!" The dog boy grinned as he and Akamaru made it to the front of the classroom. Giving Naruto a high five, he took his spot in line.

"These students will be representing our class because of their scores in weapons. Wish them luck. You have the rest of the day to figure out what to do. You have three days to get ready. Now skedaddle, and get to the training grounds." Iruka commanded.

"Um, sensei?" Sai asked.

"What is it?"

"Can we take Sumire and Shikamaru as well? They're incredibly smart."

"If you think they'll help, you may."

Sumire jumped up in happiness and dragged Shikamaru out of his and raced to the training grounds. This was going to be awesome!

When they got outside, they sat silently as they tried to come up with an idea. They didn't know what to do, everything seemed so... boring. All their ideas were normal. Not exciting at all. Wait, exciting. A light bulb went off in Hinata's head.

"I got it!"

Heads snapped toward her direction. Anything would be useful.

"Why don't we structure it as one of Naruto's pranks. The paintball. If you throw the the kunai correctly and set up the traps up correctly, we can paint a picture on the wall!" she suggested.

"That's brilliant!" Sumire cheered, her eyes shining.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru groaned. That was so much math and calculations.

"What are we going to paint?" Sai asked.

"The Hokage!" Naruto answered.

"Actually, I was thinking of painting a headband of Konoha." Hinata said meekly.

"I like Hinata's idea." Kiba and Akamaru agreed.

"Hn. I like it." Sasuke nodded.

"Well than, me and Shikamaru will start the calculations now! Sai I need you too, you know how to draw." Sumire commanded.

**Flashback end**

Hinata just wanted her father to be proud of her for what she did. But his expectations, they were too high. She wouldn't make rookie of the year, Sasuke or Sai would have that position. She would be fourth, at best. She would never meet her father's expectations. Why couldn't she be someone else or born second? Everyone would be happy that way.

Suddenly, she noticed something from the side of her eye. The figure snuck between buildings. Who was that? Who would be sneaking around so late at night? Squinting her eyes, she recognized the silvery colored hair. Mizuki-sensei?! What was he doing?

Looking around, she saw that no one had noticed him. Listening, she heard nothing. Her family were probably all sleeping comfortably and no one had their byakugan activated. No one would notice if she went outside for a while. Besides, it wasn't like anyone cared. Nobody would even notice she was gone. Opening the window, she slipped out into the cool night air. She could feel the wind as she raced after Mizuki-sensei. Just what was he doing?

There had been something off with him the entire day. He had grit his teeth and frowned. Then he left early. Perhaps he thought that no one would notice, but Hinata was a lot more observant than he gave her credit for. When you have nothing to do and a huge home, naturally you gain some observation skills.

Mizuki kept looking behind him as he ran. Hinata's sharp eyes noticed the scroll he held. _It looks familiar, _she thought. Where have I seen it before? Mentally, she shifted through the pictures of scrolls she had seen. Sumire's medical scrolls, the sealing scrolls, the jutsu scrolls, the tai-, wait! The jutsu scrolls! She was sure the one he was holding was one of them. Now which one was it? she asked herself as she discreetly followed Mizuki. Images of scrolls filled her head as she shifted through them. This one had to to be important and valuable, so the ones she learnt about at the library.

Her mind was divided, one half on following Mizuki, one on trying to identify the scroll. That's it! That scroll Mizuki was carrying was the Forbidden scroll. _What is he doing with it? _she wondered. Chunin shouldn't be able to access that scroll, in fact only the Hokage and ANBU could see it. _What is he up to? _Hinata asked, stepping to hard on one of the buildings. A crumble of rock fell down and inside the room, the ceiling started to shake. Unbeknownst to her, that was the house of Naruto. The ANBU who were watching him had heard and felt the disturbance and headed up to investigate. They hadn't been expecting it to be Hinata, the shy heiress of the Hyuuga clan. Of course, they also saw Mizuki with the Forbidden Scroll as soon as they noticed Hinata.

"I'll report to the Hokage!" the ANBU with a weasel mask told his team before shunshining away.

"I'm trailing them."Crow informed the last two members before leaping after the Hyuuga heiress and the chunin teacher, Mizuki.

Hinata kept chasing Mizuki, determined to find out just what Mizuki was going do. He stopped at the edge of the forest near the Academy. Sensing that this was a perfect time to find out what was going on, Hinata leapt out of the tree, landing softly on her feet.

"What are you doing Mizuki-sensei?" she asked. Hearing her voice, Mizuki was nearly scared half to death. _I didn't even notice she was following me,_ he thought.

"If it isn't the demon's boy crush. " Mizuki chuckled, masking his fright.

"What?" Hinata asked. Crush? Oh right, Naruto! Naruto was no demon. Her father didn't like him, but her father didn't like many people, including herself.

"I suppose you're wondering why I'm here?" he asked.

"Why? Why do you have the scroll?" Hinata asked.

" To leave this pathetic excuse of a village in the dust!" Mizuki cackled maniacally.

"What?!" Hinata felt anger boiling up in her. How dare he say that about Konoha!

"Angry now? This village is nothing! They can't even kill one little boy! And they call themselves shinobi! When I get this scroll to Orochimaru, I'll have so much power! Much more than I have now! So much more!" he continued to laugh.

"What are you doing?!You can't leave! You'll be a traitor!" Hinata asked.

"You think I care? I'm leaving. This village couldn't kill one little boy, that demon boy! Do you know why everyone hates him?Do you know why they hate Naruto?" Mizuki asked slyly.

"No one hates him!" Hinata denied, shaking her head. However, in her heart, she knew that people didn't like him. Those glares, those words, it was a wonder Naruto held up the way he did. Hinata respected him for that, but she would never admit it to this traitor!

"Don't deny it! You know in your heart that I'm right. He's a demon! He's the kyuubi! " Mizuki laughed as Hinata's eyes widened.

"He's not! He's not!" she continued to scream.

"Years earlier when the Yondaime fought the kyuubi, he didn't kill it! He sealed it into a little boy!" Mizuki revealed.

"Naruto." Hinata finished. The mystery was solved. All those glares, all the hateful words. She understood now, but it didn't scare her. What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she scared? Shouldn't she be scared?

"Now you see? He's a demon! Come with me! You'll gain so much power! You could have anything." Mizuki offered with a nasty smile.

"Any...thing ?" Hinata repeated dumbly. Memories of her father's cold glares and her sister's hurtful words flashed in her mind.

"Any thing. A proud father, a nice imoutou. A family! Friends! Money! Anything!" Mizuki enticed her.

"I-I-" Hinata stuttered. She wanted to go. She wanted that family so much, she had wished for it, and now, it could be hers. It was so close. But that would mean leaving everything she ever loved. Her friends and their families.

"Don't listen to him!" a voice cried. She whirled around in shock.

"Naruto?!" she asked as she whirled around.

"You can't go! You can't go!" he cried, launching himself toward her.

"Naruto?" she asked.

"You can't go. Please don't. You never have to talk to me again, but what about all your other friends. What about Kiba and Sasuke and Ino and Sakura and Sumire and Shika and Chouji and all of them! What would happen to them?!" Naruto asked, pleading for her not to go.

Hinata gently pried Naruto off of her." I won't go. I'm not scared of you, Naruto-kun. You've been my friend for too long for me to be scared of you. Besides, I would never leave any of my friends, especially not you. And I don't think you're a demon or a monster. You're just Uzumaki Naruto to all of us." she told him as she took up a protective stance in front of Naruto.

"What fools! I'll kill you both!" Mizuki yelled as he raced toward them. Hinata braced herself for the hit, but it never came. An ANBU jumped out from behind Mizuki and knocked him unconscious with one clean, swift blow.

"ANBU-sama! You were here all along?" Hinata asked.

"Yes. I thought you should know the truth. Now you should get back, Hinata. Your father will be worried. Naruto, you too. Sumire is probably panicking. I have to bring him and the scroll back." the ANBU instructed.

"Yes ANBU-sama." Hinata obeyed.

Just as she left, Naruto stopped her." Arigatou, Hinata. Will you tell the others?" he asked. The ANBU had left leaving them at the edge of the forest, the sun starting to rise.

"If you want to. I don't think they'll be scared of you. We've been best friends for a long time Naruto." Hinata reminded him.

"I don't know yet, I still haven't quite understood it yet. It's hard to wrap around my head. Sayonara Hinata." he said as he left the forest. Hinata watched him for a while, before she too left the forest. It was going to be a long day tomorrow and she still needed sleep.

* * *

**Sorry this is so short. My idiotic, annoying, bratty, little sister tried to see the story and didn't save the document, so I had to write the whole thing over again. And I got tired so this got shortened. I can't even get even with her because I'm not supposed to be on the computer right now and my mom blames me if my sister gets injured from one of our fights. Usually, she starts the fight because she's "bored". So annoying! Anyways, please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**The next morning, seven o'clock**

"Naruto I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, but you have to understand, I was trying to let you have a normal childhood." the Sandaime attempted to explain to Naruto.

"I know old man. But it's a bit of a shock. I can't believe they were right." Naruto murmured.

"Naruto~. Come on, you know that's not true." Hinata pleaded. Where was the Naruto she had admired so long?

"I don't know."

"They aren't right."

"But, what if it does come out? What if I attack the village?" he asked.

"That won't happen. Jiraiya checked the seal, it's foolproof. If you want, you can tell your friends." Hiruzen offered.

"I can't. They'll hate me. Just like the people. They'll all hate me." Naruto told him shaking his head.

"But I don't. I know about your problem, but I don't hate you. You should put some more faith into our friends." Hinata advised softly.

"How about you think about it?" Hiruzen compromised. He knew Hinata didn't want to keep secrets from her friends, but Naruto didn't want to tell his friends about it.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. May we be excused?" Hinata asked, she still had around an hour to sleep, and she was exhausted. Catching Mizuki and then dealing with Naruto certainly hadn't been relaxing. Sumire was probably worried about Naruto as well. They should start heading home now. Besides, she doubted the Sandaime was very happy to be awake this early either.

"Yes, you may go." Hiruzen nodded.

Stifling a yawn, Hinata left the room, Naruto following close behind her. They walked in silence, both lost in thought.

_I want to tell all of them. I don't want it to keep as apart. But Naruto, he's afraid. I don't understand. Why is he afraid? They won't hurt him, of hate him, or do anything to him, so why is he so afraid? He ...he, it's his choice. I can't do anything about it. _Hinata thought.

_I don't get Hinata. Doesn't she know that they'll hate me if I tell them? But she didn't. Maybe they'll all be like her. I could try. I don't want to hide it from them. They'll find out one day anyways. Sumire or Shikamaru, they'll eventually figure it out. Maybe I should tell them. It'll save me a lot of trouble later on. _Naruto reasoned with himself.

"I want to..." they both said at the same time, as they were almost at the door.

"You go first." Hinata blushed.

Naruto cleared his throat uncomfortably." I just wanted to say that, I think I'll try and tell them." Naruto decided.

Hinata smiled. Naruto had courage again! "Try it! I'm sure they won't care." Hinata encouraged.

"Thanks! Bye!" Naruto grinned foxily as he leapt onto the buildings to get back to his apartment.

Hinata opted to keep walking. She wasn't very excited to get back home and face her father. No doubt he would give her a stern talking to. He would say that she was a disgrace to the clan, or tell her she was weak and useless. That was just too bad, but if Naruto could stand the glares, she could stand her cold family.

She dragged her walk for as long as possible before returning to the Hyuuga Compound. Her father and her little sister weren't there. She breathed a sigh of through her window once again, she landed on her bed.

_I'll just rest for a while before I go find my father,_ she thought. Closing her eyes, she floated off into dreamland.

* * *

_Bring!Briiiing!_ an alarm sounded. Just a while longer, Hinata thought, turning around.

"HINATA-SAMA!" a voice awoke her from her slumber. Shooting up, Hinata looked around to see Ko, the family guard, standing in front of her bed.

"What is it?" she asked, rubbing her tired eyes.

"WHAT IS IT?! You'll be LATE for school, so get going!" Ko commanded.

"Hai!" Hinata cried as Ko left. Rushing through her morning procedures, she zoomed downstairs to go to school.

"I'll be late! Gomene tou-san. I need to skip breakfast today." she called as she ran out of the door and grabbed her lunch. As she left she couldn't help but hear a disappointed sigh from her father. So she had let him down again.

She slowed down once she reached the crossroads in front of the Academy. Today they were genin! She could hardly wait! _I hope Naruto is on my team. _she thought as she checked her watch. Nine forty five, fifteen minutes left. What?! Ko said she would be late! He tricked her! No wonder her father as so disappointed at her, she fell for a simple trick like that. She was never going to become a ninja if she didn't see through traps or tricks. Groaning under her breath, Hinata walked to the Academy. Naruto probably wasn't there yet anyway.

Opening the door to classroom, A-7, Hinata sat down. There were a lot of people there already, everyone was excited to become a shinobi. Skimming over the room, she saw Naruto. He was here early?! He probably didn't even sleep. Her evaluation was proven correct when his head dropped onto the table and he began to snore. Nearby, Shikamaru was doing the exact same thing as Sasuke and Kiba looked on in annoyance. Shino only looked on impassively. Hinata giggled, that was Naruto alright.

"Hinata! What did you and Naruto go do last night?" Sumire asked sliding into the seat next to her. Sakura and Ino stood at her desk as well.

"Come on! Tell us!" they begged.

"I'm tired. Ask someone else." Hinata yawned. Normally she wasn't like this, but it was just so tiring to chase a chunin. It felt like her legs were going to fall off.

"Did you hear? Mizuki went traitor." Chouji told them, munching on his chips.

"Really?" Sai asked from the table underneath them, voicing the question that ran through everyone's heads.

"Yeah, I heard my pops talking about it earlier this morning, but he wouldn't give me the details." Chouji complained.

"He stole the Forbidden scroll. I had to ...(yawn) ... chase him across town to get it back. Naruto and the ANBU guards helped." Hinata informed them tiredly, her eyelids drooping. Seeing that Hinata was tired to death, Sumire got up and continued the conversation else where as to not disturb her rest. They continued in hushed whispers, sprouting ridiculous theories and such.

When Iruka finally came, thirteen minutes later, he saw three sleeping students instead of the usual Shikamaru. He smiled in his brain, he had heard all about Hinata and Naruto's midnight quest to stop Mizuki.

"Sumire, Sasuke, Chouji, please wake up your partners. Today is an important day, I need them to be awake and listening, otherwise they might get into trouble down the road." Iruka ordered. The students rolled their eyes, Iruka had gone over everything at least a million times every week. Most of the kids could memorize the speech.

"Now, don't do that. This one is very different." Iruka sighed. Thankfully, both Hinata and Naruto had gotten up. unfortunately, the ever sleeping Shikamaru would not wake up. Iruka had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't actually sleeping at all. So he started his speech, completely ignoring the fact that Mizuki was gone. He figured that most of them had heard the rumors anyway.

"As of today you are all ninja. To get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin. First level ninjas. All the genins will be grouped in squads, each squad will be lead by a jounin, an elite ninja." he started. At this point, whispers broke out. Many of the children wished to be on a team with their friends or didn't want to be on a team with certain people and a few didn't want to be one teams at all.

"We want each squad to have a balance of strength and abilities. So that's how we set them up." Iruka informed them. Technically, that phrase was a lie. This year had included many of the clan heirs and their friends. It had been difficult setting up teams that wouldn't fail immediately.

**Flashback**

"Hokage-sama, this year's teams are extremely important. And two teams will be five man squads instead of the normal four man squads. Please reconsider your choices! " Iruka warned the Hokage at the meeting. He thought the teams he had written out would've worked perfectly. But the Hokage thought otherwise, he had mixed up two of the teams, something Iruka wasn't sure was the best choice.

"Iruka, I understand your concern, but the teams cannot be formed purely based on weaknesses and strong points. We must take their attitudes and personalities into account as well." the Hokage said. " Now is not a time of war. We can allow some friendship and teamwork. During war, we chose the teams purely based on ability, but remember, now is not a time of war. For the teams to be most effective, they have to be able and willing to work together."

"I understand Hokage -sama." Iruka bowed as he stood back into line.

"This year we'll be doing something a little different." the Hokage grinned. The jounin and chunin in the room shuddered, feeling bad for the genin hopefuls. This was going to be a tough time for them.

"Now, I'll announce the teams."

**Flashback**

**"**Now I'll announce the teams." Iruka said. This time, everyone was awake and alert, even Shikamaru. _Now if only they could be like this during history lessons_, Iruka thought, recalling all the times the class had fallen asleep in his lectures.

"Team one..."

Naruto looked out the window, he couldn't wait to see whose squad he was on, but he was so nervous about telling them his secret. What if they hated him? Forever! Then what would he do? Oh, he was so worried! He was starting to act like Sakura right before a test!

"Team seven, this team will have four members instead of the regular three with a jounin. " Iruka informed them. That sentence baffled most of the clan raised kids, weren't genin teams supposed to have three people and a jounin?

"This class has two extra graduates, so we have to make an exception. Now continuing, Team seven, Haruno Sakura, Sai, Inuzuka Kiba-"

"WHAT?!" Both Sakura and Kiba screamed. They didn't exactly see eye to eye on many things.

"Quiet down, let me finish." Iruka commanded. They both shut their mouths, and silently brooded. "And Aburame Shino." he finished.

The last person did nothing more than add an even darker rain cloud on top the heads of Sakura and Kiba, Sai on the other hand, didn't particularly care. In fact, he liked the team arrangements. Shino was his friend.

"Team eight," Iruka continued, ignoring Sakura and Kiba's glares," will also be a five man squad. Uzumaki Naruto,"

Naruto snapped to attention at his name. This was it! Who was one his squad? Hopefully, it was better than Kiba's.

"Hyuuga Hinata-"

"Yes!" Naruto and Hinata both cheered. They were on the same squad. Hinata blushed as soon as she spoke and Naruto, not noticing her discomfort, turned around and gave her a thumbs up.

"LET ME FINISH!" Iruka screamed, using his infamous, big head no jutsu.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto gave Sasuke a high five. So far, his team was great! Now for the last member. Hopefully it was Shikamaru or Sumire or Chouji, but not Ino. She was too loud.

"And Senju Sumire!" Iruka finished. The team cheered loudly. Well only Naruto did. Hinata blushed and poked her fingers together, Sasuke smirked and pulled Naruto back into his seat, and Sumire grinned and rolled her eyes at their antics. They would have the best team ever!

"Team ten, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji." Iruka announced.

Upon hearing her team was made up of the lazy genius, and the food boy, Ino's forehead met the table. How come even Naruto got a better team than her? He was the most obnoxious person ever! Shikamaru fell right back to sleep, trying to make up for the sleep he wouldn't get because Ino was on his team, and Chouji ate more furiously than ever.

"After lunch, come back to the classroom and your jounin sensei's will pick you up." Iruka commanded.

Gradually, all the students left the room, and the only one left was Naruto, standing near the door.

"What's wrong?" Iruka asked.

"I found out about my furry little problem, and I ...I want to tell my friends, but I'm afraid that they won't accept me anymore." Naruto confessed. It was one of the rare times where he was actually worried about something that wasn't ramen.

"Don't worry. If they can't see you for who you are, then they don't deserve to be your friends. Don't worry, you'll be fine." Iruka said, hugging Naruto.

"Yeah! I'll be fine!" he said in a false cheery voice, but even so, he couldn't keep out the worry.

* * *

**I don't think I can update tomorrow. Dad's coming home from his work trip and Mom's coming home early, so yeah. Sorry! Oh, and I can't update next Friday either, we're going on vacation! Finally! I'm so excited! Please review! Bye! I am soo soo sooo sorry, but my dad's home and I can't write. Next update will probably be in a month or so. So so soo sorry!**


	13. Chapter 13

Groaning, Naruto made his way out of the large academy doors and into the sunlit lawn. Iruka-sensei's advice hadn't been helpful. Not in the least. How was he supposed to know if is friends cared or not? What if he told them and they hated him? What if they never spoke to him again, or teased in and hut him just like all the other kid? Would he be able to stand it? Could he ever keep his walls up under that kind of pressure? He knew that eventually, it would hurt him so much that his walls would crumble and completely change. They would clam up tightly, forever binding him to a faceless, happy facade, and forever keeping other people away from him. Was it worth it? To risk the friendship that grew over the years, forming a giant web, to be torn down by him in just a few seconds? Did he want that? Tearing his eves from the ground, Naruto lifted his head to look at his friends. They still ate in the same corner the always did, next to the tall tree, and right around the swing. He thought that although all of them had been trained to be killers, to murder, to lie, they looked to be, at that moment, the perfect picture of serenity, naivety, innocence, happiness. If they looked like that already, without him, did they really need him to be a part of their group? He tried to imagine himself there, just barely hidden by Sumire's light blue top, arguing with Kiba, their faces set in friendly growls. He tried to see Sasuke's scowling face as he looked on, and Sai's black eyes sparkling with glee as he talked with Shino. He tried to create the picture of Ino, Sakura, and Hinata, eating lunch in a semi circle laughing and talking, half listening to the sounds around them. He tried to recreate the picture of Shikamaru and Chouji eating chips and watching the sky with Sumire, who smiled her smile, the one that looked like she truly enjoyed something. He tried to see them all together, like a group of duckling, eyes bright, and smiles shining. It didn't look right, he thought sadly. So instead of joining his lively group of friends, Naruto stood at the very edge of the academy, face hidden by shadows, and watched the group from afar.

"Naruto! Hurry up, or the game will start without you!" Sumire called, her voice tinkling like little bells. Her eyes shined a warm honey gold as she flashed her pearly white teeth towards Naruto. Naruto decided that it would be alright, that he could hide for a little longer, inside his perfect world of deceit.

"Coming! Wait a little, jeez!" he replied, the cheery smile forever pasted on his face.

* * *

From the top of the school, a set of four figures watched. Their features were quite distinctive. A set of crimson eyes, a shock of bright silver hair, a beard accompanied by a smoking cigarette, and a sly grin.

"Say, these kids will be quite the handful, won't they?"

"You know, they'll pass. It's practically guaranteed, seeing as most of them will be important political figures."

"Ah, the joys of politics."

"The Hokage is in for a surprise this year. I don't think he realizes just how tightly these kids are bound."

"Literally or figuratively? As you can see, they've gotten themselves in quite a mess."

"The fun of ninja wire."

"Is that even possible?! How'd they all get stuck in that?"

"That boy with the paintbrush seems to be rather indifferent to everything happening."

The figures watched as the eleven kids tried unsuccessfully to untangle themselves from the large ball of wire they had currently constructed around themselves.

* * *

"Naruto! What did you do?!" Sasuke asked, his hair steadfastly tangled in the silver cage around them.

"It's not my fault! Ino pushed my arm!" He whined, soundly suspiciously like a whimpering puppy.

"Oh, so now it's my fault?! I never tried to set up the prank in the first place!" Ino defended herself.

"Yeah, don't pick on Ino, Naruto!" Sakura seconded. The girls were very close and almost always defended each other.

"It's not all N-Naruto's fault..." Hinata whispered, trying and failing to stay neutral.

"Troublesome."

"You guys are all idiots! Shikamaru, get off my foot, you're crushing my toes." Sumire deadpanned.

Sai sighed, how did he end up with such an idiotic group of friends. When they acted like this, he truly questioned his skills of choosing the right allies. Rolling his eyes as a sign of defeat, he gently jabbed Chouji in the side as he reached into his kunai pouch. Sai pulled out a kunai and jabbed it into the string. With a screech, metal meet metal, and the kunai sliced through the wire. Unfortunately, Sai had conveniently forgotten to warn his friends. As the wire snapped, they fell apart, each of them stumbling onto the ground.

"Honestly, you're all idiots." Sai commented.

He was greeted with red-faced glares and angry eyes. Lots of them.

Later, Naruto, Sumire, Hinata, and Sasuke waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. It had been two hours. Two hours since their friends had taken off with their respective teachers. Sai, Sakura, Kiba, and Shino, had gone with a nice looking teacher. The jounin had intriguing red eyes, and layered black hair. Of course, she had been immediately recognized by Sakura. Sakura was planning to go into the field of genjutsu. With her precise chakra control and average reserves, she would make an excellent genjutsu master. Genjutsu took a lot of concentration, but not as much chakra. Instead of creating things using chakra, like ninjutsu did, genjutsu could be performed be simply removing some of your chakra and projecting it into another's mind. Being a medic nin was far harder, as it took a large amount of chakra to heal larger, shallow injuries or small deep injuries. Sakura simply couldn't afford to use up that much chakra. Especially because she needed to keep some in reserve in case she ever got into a taijutsu fight. Sakura, who had already read up on types of genjutsu and notable genjutsu shinobis, had immediately recognized Konoha's genjutsu mistress, Yuuhi Kurenai. Kiba, by a stroke of intellectual genius also recognized her from his old shinobi lessons, although it had been years since he had last seen her.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji had been led away by a rather average looking shinobi. The man was tall with tanned skin and kind looking brown eyes. Ino had immediately complained about being stuck on a team with three lazy men and a guy who smoked. She claimed the smoke would taint her beauty. The jounin only rolled his eyes tiredly as he walked out of the classroom.

Even after all the other kids had been taken by jounin sensei, Naruto's team was still waiting. It had already been an hour. And that was very long to wait for someone like Naruto.

"Hey, guys, wanna prank the sensei?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Sure, the sensei deserves it anyway. He's making us wait way too long." Sasuke agreed.

"Um, guys, shouldn't-" Hinata's argument was cut off by Sumire who was also very, very bored.

"We should make it really elaborate! With traps, and paint, and lots of dust!" Sumire cheered, a hint of a childlike personality shining through.

"Let's see, I've got ten paint bombs in three neon colors and that spool of wire from before!" Naruto said, turning out the many pockets of his pants. (With much persuasion, the girls had convinced Naruto not to but the 'ninja' jumpsuit and instead by a pair of black pants with numerous pockets and a gray t-shirt with a orange swirl on it.)

"I've got some tags I made last week. Lots of dust!" Sumire smiled. She had been learning all about seals, and trying to convince Naruto to learn as well. Sumire had learnt barriers and space time seals throughout her childhood at the academy. One particular instance had left the school room in ashes. It had only been a simple explosion test in a third year, except Sumire had slightly modified the tag. Only a little, she claimed.

"N-Naruto, I-"

"I've got some soldier pills and a dumpling." Sasuke said, looking into his lunchbox.

"How's that gonna be any help?!" Naruto shouted. "How am I supposed to make any thing with a dumpling?!"

" You're such an idiot, Naruto! Use it as a trap or something! " Sasuke huffed in annoyance.

" Just put a motion sensor tag under the dumpling, so if someone moves it, the traps will be activated." Sumire concluded, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's a really good idea! Hey Hinata, what do you think?" Naruto asked.

"N-Naruto-kun, should we really be doing this? If otou-sama finds out, he won't be happy." Hinata murmured.

"Well, then we can say Naruto forced you to do it!" Sasuke smirked.  
"Yeah, that's righ... ehh?! strongI/strong forced her to? What about you? Duck-butt!"  
"Idiot!"  
"Suck-upper!"  
"That's not even a word!"  
"Yes, it is!"

Sumire sighed as she watched the boys. Even though they were older than her physically, she swore they were younger than her mentally. Humming a tune, she set to work on the trap. Oh, the new sensei was going to regret ever being late. A malicious aura manifested itself into her chakra and all the inhabitants of the room shivered. Naruto and Sasuke stopped fighting, each immediately feeling very sorry for the new sensei. Hinata, on the other hand, looked at sumire. Her hair was still in pigtails tied with blue ribbon, her light blue shirt with long wide sleeves, resembling a a very short yukata that went to an inch above her knees hung loosely on a her thin frame. Her shorts that were tight and black, could barely be seen under the yukata-like shirt. Shinobi sandals that were almost knee length adorned her feet. Her honey brown eyes glowed like the sun against her cream colored, slightly tanned skin. All in all, she looked rather like a doll. Hinata truly wondered how someone as innocent looking as Sumire could be so cunning. Looking back at the two boys, she saw Naruto's bright cerulean blue eyes and whiskered cheeks. She wondered how the villagers could mistake him for the kyuubi. Him, with his tanned skin and earnest heart, in Hinata's eyes was nearly perfect. Sasuke's white skin contrasted brightly against Naruto's skin. His black eyes and hair complimented the snowy skin, making him look almost delicate, if not for the twitch of a smirk that always lingered on his lips. His dark blue shirt and black pants were complimented by a pair of standard shinobi sandals. Just like the shoes she and Naruto wore. The uchiha clan was proudly displayed on his back. A white and black vest with an uchiha clan symbol embroidered on it, hung over his shoulders. If only she looked as confidant as them. Hinata thought of her own clothes. A purple jacket (just a tidbit baggy), unzipped, with the hyuuga symbol imprinted on the shoulder was put over a white shirt and a pair of tan mid length pants covered her legs. Her stance was crouched, her head just barely lifted, like a cowering turtle. She wished that she could stand up straight and be just as proud as the rest of her team. The killing aura slowly faded as Sumire was drawn deeper and deeper into constructing the trap. Hinata sighed, they really shouldn't do this to their poor jounin senseis.

* * *

**There, now it's back to normal. Sorry for the crazy formatting earlier. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey peoples! I know it's been a long time since the last update, but hope you enjoy this chapter! I've been busy and just kept procrastinating. Really sorry!**

The hallway was silent. Suspiciously so. From what he had seen, and read, the group that he was teaching was supposedly rather close knit and well, loud. Just yesterday, the were making so much noise during lunch. Besides, even if the group wasn't loud, there was someone who definitely was. Uzumaki Naruto. The last time he had seen the kid was back when he was ANBU, around two years ago. Back then, Naruto was still small and could have qualified as "cute", but he had heard that Naruto had grown to become quite the noisy prankster.

As Kakashi neared the room, he heard the sounds of quiet munching. Were his cute little students eating lunch without him? Curious, he opened the door. The four kids were sitting in a circle, awake but rather bored, and Sasuke was chewing on …. Um, something. It looked white, but it could've very well been gray as well.

"Hi sensei! You're late!" Naruto screeched, jumping up from his chair. Kakashi only stared back, not the least bit ruffled.

"U-um, sen-s-sei, we l-left you a d-dumpling. "Hinata offered, pointing at a dumpling sitting innocently on a plate on the table closest to the door.

"We tried saving some more, but Naruto ate most of them before you got here. We had to put that one pretty far away so Naruto didn't eat it before you got here." Sumire explained quietly, looking up from her rather thick book on sealing.

"S-Shut up! It's his fault I was hungry anyways! If he hadn't been so late, I wouldn't have been so hungry!" Naruto retorted rather defensively. Sasuke snorted on the side.

"Of course that's why." Sumire bit back sarcastically.

"Right, of course. Thank you for the dumpling." Kakashi said, coming in before a fight broke out between the team members. He edged towards the dumpling, grabbing it with his hand. Had he been paying attention, he may have seen the sinister Naruto passed to Sasuke or the vengeful glint in Sumire's eyes or Hinata's suppressed smile, but he wasn't.

It all happened in a flash. His fingers had just barely swept over the dumpling, when the seal activated in a flash of light. The light bounced off of a small mirror situated at the door and traveled across the classroom to activate another seal. In an instant, the classroom was filled with smoke. Kakashi dropped the dumpling in surprise. Little did he know, that the dropping of the dumpling had just set off another trap. As soon as Kakashi shifted into the standard fighting positions, projectiles began to fly towards him at incredible speeds. In response, Kakashi whipped out his kunai to fight off what he assumed were a collection of kunai and shurikan. Unfortunately for him, they were not. The paintballs crashed into the kunai and exploded on him one after another in succession. Blinded by the paint, Kakashi tripped backwards. His hand flew out as he tried to regain his balance. His hand hit a metal jar, he assumed it was just a jar filled with pencils. He should've known better than to assume things. The jar tripped and fell, its contents falling out. Little spherical pills, hard as rocks, rolled around under Kakashi's unsuspecting feet. As he stumbled around, he stepped on the little pills and nearly roller- pilled (Is that what it's called?) across the floor. Unable to control his movements, Kakashi heat the window face forward. There was a sharp _crack _as his poor nose squished on the glass. There was barely any time to groan before another seal was activated in front of his face and exploded. Wood and glass flew in all different directions and the surrounding walls soon had little fragments or debris stuck in them. A new cloud of smoke blew up as Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Sumire scuttled out into the hallway to avoid the increasing amount of smoke.

"Mire! You said that the tags were only medium explosive levels!" Sasuke yelled.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to! My hands aren't that steady yet! Besides, the table's too high to do seals properly. I can barely see over it! It was an accident! Besides, he deserved it… probably." Sumire countered, not really sure of the last part.

"I-it should b-be alright. Sensei's a j-jounin." Hinata mediated.

"That was AWESOME!" Naruto shouted, whooping.

Footsteps resounded as someone ran up the stairs. They were frantic and fast, accompanied by short uptakes of breath. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, knowing it wasn't good and immediately scuttled around the corner to hide. By silent agreement, Hinata and Sumire went to the front to distract the incoming teachers. Hinata covered the door and Sumire stood just a little in front of her. Soon enough, a chunin teacher who Hinata recognized as Ieda-sensei appeared.

"Girls, I heard the explosions! What happened? Where's Iruka –san?" the chunin asked quickly, fearing that it was an attack or a prank gone very wrong.

"Sensei, nothing happened. Iruka- sensei left for lunch after the teams were all called up." Sumire explained calmly, smiling innocently she continued her excuse, "We were just meeting our sensei, but he surprised us a little and I messed up a little on my explosive tag. It wasn't very strong though, it was just the chair that crashed into the wall that made such a loud noise. We'll clean it up. Promise."

At Sumire's explanation, the teacher visibly calmed down, giving a little sigh of relief.

"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting you class sensei. I didn't mean to do any harm." Sumire apologized, half actually meaning it. Behind her, Hinata gave the teacher an apologetic bow.

"Oh, it's quite alright. Be more careful next time Sumire- chan. Best get home now, it's pretty late already. The teams were announced hours ago."

"Yes sensei. We'll be done soon." Sumire replied, a shy smile on her face.

Seeing no trouble, the teacher left and Naruto and Sasuke came out. Hinata slumped a little in relief against the doorway. How Sumire managed to charm the teachers, she could never figure out. They had been in trouble, well Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba, and Sumire always figured out a way to help them weasel out the majority of the punishment. Mostly through half-truths, she had never outright lied, only neglected to mention some key aspects. A true shinobi.

When they were sure that Ieda- sensei was out of earshot, Sumire turned to the boys.

"Do you think Kakashi's sensei's ok? He hasn't come out yet. Should we check?"

"Nah, he'll be fine." "We should check." Naruto and Sasuke replied together. They turned to glare at each other after they heard the opposing side's reply.

"N- Naruto, Sasuke, we should go make sure." Hinata spoke, giving her opinion.

Eager to avoid the fight, Sumire spoke out as well. "Yeah, let's just go see. Besides' it'll be funny. He'll be all different colors!"

They trooped into the classroom to check on their sensei. Most of the smoke had already dispersed through the window. To their surprise, he was already standing and glaring at them. Unable to hold back their laughs, they all fell to the ground in laughter and with good reason. Kakashi's hair was even more messy than normal and stuck out in all directions, making him resemble Einstein a bit. His previously black and silver outfit was now a shockingly bright combination of neon orange, pink, and green. His one eye twitched uncontrollably. Still, the continued to laugh.

"He fell for it! He actually fell for it!" Sasuke crowed in triumph.

"Serves you right for making us wait so long!" Naruto said.

Hinata giggled, blushing because it she knew it was wrong to laugh, but just couldn't help it. Alongside her, Sumire was giggling uncontrollably.

"My first impression: I hate all of you. Meet on the roof in three minutes. " Kakashi stated in a deadpan tone. In a swirl of leaves, he disappeared. The hole in the wall was repaired with a simple mokuton jutsu. Laughing, the four newly graduated genin followed ran up the stairs.

On the roof, a nice breeze blew by. It was spring and the sun was bright. Birds chirped in the forests surrounding Konoha, everything just seemed so peaceful and cheery. Well, everything except for one very irate Kakashi. _ How did I fall for such a simple trap? I'll never be able to get these disgusting colors off of me! Minato- sensei, why couldn't your son have been more like you? Hokage-sama, why this team? Why them?! _Kakashi cursed the universe for getting him stuck with such a troublesome team. He was broken out of his thoughts when a set of four hugely smiling faces came rushing out from the door to the roof. He took the time to examine them more properly as they sat in front of him. The brightest was obviously Naruto. His bright golden hair and blue eyes set him apart from most shinobi. His face glowed with happiness, and just a tinge of sadness, which Kakashi thought could be attributed the the villagers. Still, it seemed he was happy. He had friends, an adopted (even if he didn't realize it) sister in Sumire, a _family_. Next to him was Sumire. The little girl had really passed all of their expectations when she became friends with Naruto's groups. Truthfully, he didn't think she would recover from the Uchiha attack. Looking at her now, she seemed so different from the little child he had comforted so many years ago. It wasn't physical, not really, but something just felt different. That wasn't the most surprising though. The most was Hinata. She hadn't changed much, and that was what bothered him. She was still quiet and meek, even the years she spent in Naruto's presence had not changed that and Kakashi was concerned. Perhaps a visit to the Hyuugas should be arranged. Last of all was Sasuke. Kakashi could see how he and Naruto were so close. Both were motivated, competitive, and mischievous. There was always just a hint of a smirk on both of their faces. He looked over the kids again before speaking.

"Give a self-introduction. " he said as he smiled painfully.

"Um… how about you start, sensei? We all know each other already, so you should start first and give an example." Sumire suggested quietly.

"I am Hatake Kakashi. My dream… not important. My hobbies … well… no need for you to know. I like…stuff. I dislike … stuff." Kakashi introduced, smirking silently in his head. This was payback for the horrid paint on his clothes.

"I'll start then." Sasuke began confidently. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I like my friends. I dislike annoying teachers. My goal is to get done with this introduction. My hobby is annoying people."

"OooooH! Me next!" Naruto volunteered, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like my friends. I dislike annoying teachers. My goal is to get done with this introduction. My hobby is annoying people."

Catching on, Sumire smirked, just a little. "I'm Senju Sumire. I like my friends. I dislike annoying teachers. My goal is to get done with this introduction. My hobby is annoying people."

Hinata hesitated as all eyes came to her. If Father ever found out about this, she would be in so much trouble. She looked at her teammates and immediately regretted it. They were full of expectation for her to do the same as them and she knew she couldn't let them down. Besides, Kakashi- sensei probably had their files already anyways. Taking a deep breath, she started. " I'm H-hyuuga H-hinata. I- I like my friends. I dislike annoying t-teachers. M-My goal is to get done with this introduction. My hobby is a-annoying people."

Kakashi glared at them as Naruto and Sasuke began to laugh again. _Let's see if they're still laughing after this!_

"You will meet me for a test tomorrow morning at training ground 3. This will determine whether or not you become genin."

"WHAT?!" "What do you mean?!" "Aren't we genin already!"

Kakashi rubbed his forehead in annoyance as most of the team erupted in loud protests. Even Hinata was mumbling under her breath. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"The graduation test only weeds out those who have no chance of being ninja. The actual test is tomorrow. Only one third of students actually become genin." Kakashi stated over the ruckus his team was causing. He actually had to pass them this year seeing as they were all kids with incredible political weight, but it's not like he had to tell them.

"So what's the test?" Sunire asked hesitantly.

"It's a surprise," Kakashi said, feeling particularly vicious today, "Don't eat breakfast or you'll throw up."

"But s-sensei-", Hinata's quiet protest was cut off as Kakashi disappeared yet again.

"Stupid Sensei! How are we supposed to pass if he doesn't tell us what the test's on?" Naruto complained as Kakashi left.

"Don't worry. We're almost guaranteed a pass as long as we do decent tomorrow. After all, Sasuke and Hinata are both heirs to very important clans. For now, let's just meet up with everyone at Ichiraku's and get some sleep later." Sumire rationalized, already trying to figure out a way to pass.

"Right." Sasuke agreed and they all took off towards Ichiraku.

Once they arrived, they saw that the rest of their friends had already arrived.

"What happened? We've been here for an hour and a half already! We were about to leave!" Ino screeched.

"Our sensei was late. Two hours to be exact, so we treated him to a little pranking." Sasuke replied.

"Did any of you hear about the test?!" Naruto asked.

"YES!" Sakura screeched. Shikamaru, Ino and Choji just looked confused.

"What?" Ino asked.

" W-we have to p-pass another test to graduate." Hinata explained. Shikamaru frowned in thought.

"Don't worry, they won't fail you." Shikamaru replied, the gears in his brain already turning. "You guys are all clan heir teams, and major clan heirs. There's no way that the Hokage would risk that sort of political backlash. Besides, the council paired us together even though we all had rather high scores on the graduation exam. That normally doesn't occur."

"Yes, we will pass. That is because we all play an important part in politics and Konoha needs more ninja now. We scored high on the exams, therefore it follows that we will likely be passed over the civilian teams."

Sakura frowned a little as she saw the bias against civilian- born shinobi, but even she knew that those with clan backing generally were more powerful than civilians with families that did not know much about the ninja world.

"See, told you so. " Sumire beamed.

After hearing so many confirmations, everyone calmed down a little and conversation eased towards lighter topics. Everyone made sure to enjoy themselves thoroughly that night as it could very well be the last day they had time to talk and play around so long. After tomorrow, all of them were going to be full- fledged genin and they would be spending their time training or doing missions. Well, hopefully, at least.

**And now they have finally met! Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! **


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